Books in the The Compact Guide series

The Cold War examines the events of this tense period of history - events that resonate ever strongly in this modern era of paranoia and surveillance.

A compact guide to DNA: who we are, how we're wired, and how we repair ourselves.

Holmes relives Napoleon's life and times in this extraordinary period by examining letters, military maps, reports, proclamations, ship's logs and coded messages, which were previously filed away or exhibited in archives in Europe.

This is the story not only of the head of a dynasty, but also a history of our times.

Nelson Mandela is one of the world's most revered public figures, a man synonymous with the long, bitter struggle to rid South Africa of an apartheid regime and replace it with a multi-racial democracy.