Historical & Political Biographies

Oswald Boelcke was Germany's first ace in World War One with a total of forty victories. His character, inspirational leadership, organisational genius, development of air-to-air tactics and impact on aerial doctrine are all reasons why Boelcke remains an important figure in the history of air warfare.

Douglas Haig is the single most controversial general in British history. In 1918, after the armies he commanded had played such an important part in helping to win the First World War, he was feted as the saviour of his country. On his death in 1928 he was mourned as a national hero. But within ten years his reputation was in ruins. It has never fully recovered. His name has become a byword for military incompetence, a callous and brutal donkey who led the lions of the British Army to their deaths in the trenches. Haig has been mercilessly lampooned by TV shows such as Blackadder and even recent academic studies depict him as a serial blunderer who learned nothing from his mistakes. In this fascinating biography, Professor Gary Sheffield reassesses Haigs reputation, and demonstrates the crucial role he played in leading British forces to victory in the First World War. Using extensive research into primary sources, many of which have been ignored or misinterpreted by other historians, he shows how Haigs experiences on the Western Front made him a highly effective commander. He also assesses his critical role in preparing the army for war and transforming the shambolic amateur force of the Somme in 1916 to the victorious army of 1918. As well as covering his stormy relations with politicians like Churchill and Lloyd George, he reveals important details about Haigs character and personal life, and his key role in post-war Britain, using the influence he wielded as a leader of ex-servicemen to help secure the peace. This is no whitewash, however: Haigs mistakes did have bloody consequences, and when he deserves criticism, the book does not spare him.

No Future Without Forgiveness is a quintessentially humane account of an extraordinary life. Desmond Tutu describes his childhood and coming of age in the apartheid era in South Africa. He examines his reactions on being able to vote for the first time at the age of 62 - and on Nelson Mandela's election, also his feelings on being Archbishop of Cape Town and his award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. No Future Without Forgiveness is also his fascinating experience as head of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The latter was a pioneering international experiment to expose many of the worst atrocities committed under apartheid, and to rehabilitate the dignity of its victims. Tutu draws important parallels between the Commissioners' approach to the situation in South Africa with other areas of conflict such as Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Rwanda and the Balkans.

This biography and military history of Islamic resistance to the French occupation of Algeria lends valuable insight into current US/Muslim relations.

The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip

A powerful account of the life of Tamerlane the Great (1336-1405), the last master nomadic power, one of history's most extreme tyrants, and the subject of Marlowe's famous play. Marozzi travelled in the footsteps of the great Mogul Emperor of Samarkland to write this wonderful combination of history and travelogue.The name of the last great warlord conjures up images of mystery and romance: medieval warfare on desert plains; the clash of swords on snow-clad mountains; the charge of elephants across the steppes of Asia; the legendary opulence and cruelty of the illiterate, chess-playing nemesis of Asia. He ranks alongside Alexander as one of the world's great conquerors, yet the details of his life are scarcely known in the West.He was not born to a distinguished family, nor did he find his apprenticeship easy - at one point his mobile army consisted only of himself, his wife, seven companions and four horses - but his dominion grew with astonishing rapidity. In the last two decades of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth, he blazed through Asia. Cities were razed to the ground, inhabitants tortured without mercy, sometimes enemies were buried alive - more commonly they were decapitated. On the ruins of Baghdad, Tamerlane had his princes erect a pyramid of 90,000 heads.During his lifetime he sought to foster a personal myth, exaggerating the difficulties of his youth, laying claim to supernatural powers and a connection to Genghis Khan. This myth was maintained after his death in legend, folklore, poetry, drama and even opera, nowhere more powerfully than in Marlowe's play - he is now as much a literary construct as a historical figure. Justin Marozzi follows in his path and evokes his legacy in telling the tale of this fabulously cruel, magnificent and romantic warrior.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER PERFECT FOR FANS OF OUTLANDERThe true story of one of Scotland's most notorious and romantic heroes.He was a spy, a clan-chief, a traitor. A polyglot, a deserter and a man of philosophy.Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was the last of the great Scottish chiefs - and the last nobleman executed for treason. In life, his wit, ambition and dubious sense of morality kept him in the thick of political intrigue. With a taste for risk and determined to make his fortune, Lovat made pacts with Catholics and Protestants, Scots and Englishmen.Lovat found his famous end a turncoat and a martyr: he threw himself in with the '45 rebellion and fought for Prince Charles against the crown. His execution in Tower Hill, at the age of 80, was the last of its kind.Lovat was one of Scotland's most notorious and romantic figures: a man whose loyalty had no home, whose sword had a price. This is the swashbuckling account of his life, and a brilliant portrayal of nation in revolt.

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday TimesBenjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process. From Marx to Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey presents the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstand or boxing, these people made time and got to work.Featuring photographs of writers and artists at work, and filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, Daily Rituals is irresistibly addictive, and utterly inspiring.

A full and detailed biography of Roger Keyes, Admiral of the Fleet and Lord of Zeebrugge and Dover. Lord Keyes was Churchill's trusted friend. He participated in the Boxer Rebellion, the First World War and the Second World War, during which he worked especially closely with Churchill.

The amazing story of champion cyclist Gino Bartali. How he helped save the lives of 800 Jews during WW2.

From the SAS to a headline-making solo journey across Antarctica - this is a story of courage, grit and determination.

A comprehensive, authoritative and highly original portrait of one of history's most unjustly infamous characters.

The memoirs of senior UK diplomat Sir Peter Westmacott, former ambassador in Turkey, France and the United States.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author Malala Yousafzai introduces some of the faces behind the statistics and news stories we read or hear every day about the millions of people displaced worldwide.Malala's experiences visiting refugee camps caused her to reconsider her own displacement - first as an Internally Displaced Person when she was a young child in Pakistan, and then as an international activist who could travel anywhere in the world, except to the home she loved. In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala not only explores her own story of adjusting to a new life while longing for home, but she also shares the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her various journeys - girls who have lost their community, relatives, and often the only world they've ever known. In a time of immigration crises, war and border conflicts, We Are Displaced is an important reminder from one of the world's most prominent young activists that every single one of the 68.5 million currently displaced is a person - often a young person - with hopes and dreams, and that everyone deserves universal human rights and a safe home.

One of the most colourful characters in the Napoleonic pantheon, Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher is best known as the Prussian general who, with the Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. This biography by Michael Leggiere is the first scholarly book in English to explore Blucher's life and military career - and his impact on Napoleon.

Violet Jessop survived the sinking of both the Titanic and Britannic, and her lively and well-rounded memoir including her first-hand account of the two disasters offers the reader a unique vantage on both the catastrophes and the socioeconomic climate of the time.

A selection of Mozart's letters, translated into English, complete with notes, linking commentary and chronology.

During the German occupation of Rome from 1942 to 1944, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty ran an escape organisation for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. Safe within the Vatican state, he regularly ventured out in disguise to continue his mission, which earned him the nickname 'the Pimpernel of the Vatican'. Kappler, the Gestapo chief in Rome, ordered him captured or killed. When the Allies entered Rome, Monsignor O'Flaherty and his colleagues had saved over 6,500 lives.

Known from his collaboration on the Netflix documentary Age of Samurai, historian William de Lange returns to what he does best: highly anecdotal stories from one of the most exciting episodes in Japanese history: the Warring States period.De Lange takes the reader right back to the 16th century's closing decades. In the course of the ensuing journey we witness the major battles fought by the country's three great unifiers: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.Quoting directly and at length from a wide range of contemporary sources, De Lange paints events and figures like no other, 'so richly rendered,' according to one critic, 'that you'd swear De Lange was present at the time, taking notes.'Samurai Battles is an epic account of a dramatic period in Japanese history-a period in which the whole country was consumed by the fire of civil strife that raged hardest on the field of battle.

'Tommy' Lascelles was Private Secretary to four monarchs - and depicted in the Netflix hit The Crown. These diaries reveal the inside story of the royal household during the abdication crisis, the second world war and the Princess Margaret-Peter Townsend affair'Brilliantly entertaining and historically priceless' Spectator

Giuseppe Garibaldi was praised for his military genius, his courage, and his charisma. In this landmark biography, Christopher Hibbert reveals how this iconic figure and architect of Italian unification earned the adulation of not only his fellow Italians, but people across the globe.

The son of white captive Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker rose from able warrior to tribal leader on the Comanche reservation. In this crisp and readable biography, William Hagan presents a well-balanced portrait of Quanah Parker, the chief, and Quanah, the man torn between two worlds.