'The Hollow Crown is exhilarating, epic, blood-and-roses history . . . Jones's material is thrilling . . . There is fine scholarly intuition on display here and a mastery of the grand narrative; it is a supremely skilful piece of storytelling.' Sunday Telegraph The fifteenth century saw the crown of England change hands seven times as the great families of England fought to the death for power, majesty and the right to rule. The Hollow Crown completes Dan Jones' epic history of medieval England, and describes how the Plantagenets tore themselves apart to be finally replaced by the Tudors. Some of the greatest heroes and villains in British history were thrown together in these turbulent times: Henry V, whose victory at Agincourt and prudent rule at home marked the high point of the medieval monarchy; Edward IV, who was handed his crown by the scheming soldier Warwick the Kingmaker, before their alliance collapsed into a fight to the death; and the last Plantagenet, Richard III, who stole the throne and murdered his own nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Finally, the Tudors arrived - but even their rule was only made certain in the 1520s, when Henry VIII ruthlessly hunted down his family's last remaining enemies. In the midst this tumult, chivalry was reborn, the printing press arrived and the Renaissance began to flourish. With vivid descriptions of the battle of Towton, where 28,000 men died in a single morning, and the Battle of Bosworth Field, at which Richard III was hacked down, this is the real story behind Shakespeare's famous history plays. Read more

THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA TIMES Top Ten Best True Crime book: 'Groundbreaking. Extraordinary''Terrific' Ian Rankin'Gripping' NEW YORK TIMES'At last, the Ripper's victims get a voice... An eloquent, stirring challenge to reject the prevailing Ripper myth' MAIL ON SUNDAYWINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION____________Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met.They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, and gives these women back their stories.____________PRAISE FOR THE FIVE'Devastatingly good. The Five will leave you in tears, of pity and of rage.' LUCY WORSLEY'Fascinating, compelling, moving.' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding'An angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth. Powerful and shaming.' GUARDIAN'Haunting' SUNDAY TIMES'What a brilliant and necessary book' JO BAKER, author of Longbourn'Beautifully written and with the grip of a thriller, it will open your eyes and break your heart.' ERIN KELLY'An outstanding work of history-from-below ... magnificent' SPECTATOR'Deeply researched' THE NEW YORKER**NOW BUY THE BRAND NEW WORK BY HALLIE RUBENHOLD: STORY OF A MURDER Read more

The tenth anniversary edition of the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. With a new Foreword by the celebrated astronaut Neil Armstrong. `Sobel has done the impossible and made horology sexy - no mean feat' New Scientist Anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that `the longitude problem' was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day - and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution. The quest for a solution had occupied scientists and their patrons for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (GBP20,000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful. Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions. The scientific establishment throughout Europe - from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton - had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, LONGITUDE is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking. Read more

The Reynolds Pamphlet (1797) is an essay by Alexander Hamilton. Written while Hamilton was serving as Secretary of the Treasury, the Pamphlet was intended as a defense against accusations that Hamilton had conspired with James Reynolds to misuse funds meant to cover unpaid wages to Revolutionary War veterans. Admitting to an affair with Maria, Reynolds’ wife, Hamilton claims that the accusation is nothing more than an attempt at blackmail. This revelation not only endangered Hamilton’s career as a public figure, but constituted perhaps the earliest sex scandal in American history. “The bare perusal of the letters from Reynolds and his wife is sufficient to convince my greatest enemy that there is nothing worse in the affair than an irregular and indelicate amour. For this, I bow to the just censure which it merits. I have paid pretty severely for the folly and can never recollect it without disgust and self condemnation. It might seem affectation to say more.”Accused of corruption in his role as Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton was forced to confess his adultery, bringing shame to himself as a married man and supposedly honorable public figure, yet saving his political career in the process. Looking back on his affair with Maria Reynolds from a distance of five years, Hamilton expresses regret for his foolishness, yet wholeheartedly denies her husband’s accusation that he had been involved in his scheme to misuse government funds. Perhaps the first sex scandal in American history, the Reynolds affair sent shockwaves throughout the burgeoning republic, leaving many to question the motives and character of their leaders for the first time, though certainly not the last. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe. Read more

'Fascinating' The Times'Blakeian in its singularity' New Statesman'A wonderful adventure' Irish Times'Rich, complex and original' Tom Holland'A crisp, ambitious and thoroughly contemporary introduction' Times Literary SupplementPoet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. In this radical new biography, we return to a world of riots, revolutions and radicals, discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics and comparative religion to look afresh at Blake's life and work - and, crucially, his mind. Taking the reader on wild detours into unfamiliar territory, John Higgs places the bewildering eccentricities of a most singular artist into context and shows us how Blake can help us better understand ourselves. Read more

One of the key figures in Christian history, St. Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491-1556) was a passionate and unique spiritual thinker and visionary. The works gathered here provide a first-hand, personal introduction to this remarkable character: a man who turned away from the Spanish nobility to create the revolutionary Jesuit Order, inspired by the desire to help people follow Christ. His Reminiscences describe his early life, his religious conversion following near-paralysis in battle, and his spiritual and physical ordeals as he struggled to assist those in need, including plague, persecution and imprisonment. The Spiritual Exercises offer guidelines to those seeking the will of God, and the Spiritual Diary shows Ignatius in daily mystical contact with God during a personal strugg;e. The Letters collected here provide an insight into Ignatius' ceaseless campaign to assist those seeking enlightenment and to direct the young Society of Jesus. Read more

The second volume in an acclaimed biography of Oliver Cromwell, from the capture of Charles I to the expulsion of the Long Parliament   In 1647, the Parliamentarians were divided. They had won the first civil war and the king was in custody, but disagreements over the way forward had led to a stalemate. As the leader of one party, Oliver Cromwell found himself again at the centre of events.   In the second volume of his pioneering biography, Ronald Hutton traces Cromwell’s career from 1647 through to his seizure of supreme power. These decisive years saw the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, as well as notorious and savage campaigns in Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell’s political and military leadership were well honed after years of practice, but this was also the period of his greatest ruthlessness and brutality.   This groundbreaking account reveals a different kind of Cromwell, showing how he navigated the many forces ranged against him―and rose to the pinnacle of his power. Read more

A Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Bookseller and at Waterstones'He understands only the women he invents – the others not at all'Thomas Hardy is one of the most beloved and most-read British authors. His influence on literature and the minds of his readers is singular. But how is it that the novelist who created some of the most memorable and modern female characters in literature had such troubled relationships with real women?In this highly innovative book, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne re-examines Hardy’s life through the eyes of the women who made him – mother, sisters, girlfriends, wives, muses. The story veers from shocking scenes such as his obsession with the sight of a woman hanged, to poignant vignettes of unfulfilled passion, to fascinating details of working women’s lives in the nineteenth century.Hardy Women is the story of how the magnificent fictional women he invented would not have been possible without the hardship and hardiness of the real ones who shaped his passions and his imagination. It is only through understanding and witnessing these hardy women that we can truly enter the heart of this great novelist and poet. Read more

Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, is best known for his exceptional military career. He was one of the Duke of Wellington's ablest lieutenants during the Peninsular War - he won a great victory against the French at the Battle of Barrosa, conducted the siege of San Sebastian and acted as the duke's second in command. But he was much more than a soldier - he had broad interests as a wealthy and innovative Scottish landowner, politician, sportsman and traveller. He was a remarkable man of his age, and Philip Grant's biography, the first to be published in recent times, does justice to his remarkable life and reputation. Graham only took up his military career in 1792 when he was outraged by the violation of his wife's coffin by French revolutionaries. He determined to fight them and he raised his own regiment to do so, soon establishing himself as an outstanding leader and field commander. He saw action at Toulon, made a daring escape from the siege of Mantua, served in Malta and Egypt and with Sir John Moore during the Corunna campaign. He eventually rose to the highest rank. Philip Grant describes Graham's long and varied life in absorbing detail, often quoting from his vivid letters and diaries. Read more

With North Shields celebrating its 800th birthday this year (2025). courtesy of Prior Germanus, I began wondering about the town’s expansion uphill to the plateau on which the main town now stands.I was surprised how little information there is.There are certainly accounts of the Reverend Thomas Dockwray from Stamfordham having built Dockwray Square but very little about the main town.Searching Google will elicit a few lines about John Wright with his sons William and John Bowes Wright buying 50 acres of land and laying out the streets which we know so well and another search will tell you about the son William Wright having been Sheriff, Alderman and Mayor of Newcastle and Deputy-Lieutenant of Northumberland but little else, yet another search will tell you that John Bowes Wright travelled extensively and bought an Egyptian Mummy which he presented to the Literary & Philosophical Society in Newcastle and that Mummy is now held by what we olduns still call the Hancock Museum but which I understand is correctly called the Great North Museum: Hancock.I could however find no truly comprehensive account of the lives of the men who effectively created our town.In these pages I have delved into archive material, old newspapers and genealogical records in an attempt to correct that omission, following, not only the three men but also their descendants. Some went on to do useful things for society others led more ordinary lives.I have tried to avoid a dull text book narrative style and instead make it more conversational in the hope that more people will follow the story of their lives.I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing it. Read more

'A beautifully written portrait of an overlooked prime minister and a fascinating account of his assassination during the Napoleonic Wars' ANTONY BEEVOR, author of StalingradFour American presidents have been assassinated, but in its much longer history, only one British prime minister. This is the untold story of that killing and its enormous repercussions.On 11 May 1812 Spencer Perceval, the British Prime Minister, was fatally shot at close range in the lobby of the House of Commons. In the confused aftermath, his assailant, John Bellingham, made no effort to escape. A week later, before his motives could be examined, he was tried and hanged.Here, for the first time, the historian Andro Linklater looks past the conventional image of Bellingham as a 'deranged businessman' and portrays him as an individual, driven by personal anxieties and by the raw emotions that convulsed his home town of Liverpool. But as the evidence accumulates, a wider, darker picture emerges - John Bellignham was not alone in hating the prime minister.Two hundred years later, Andro Linklater examines the ecidence and brilliantly deconstructs the assassination of Spencer Perceval - the only British Prime Minister ever to have suffered that fate - to offer a fresh perspective on Britain and the Western world at a critical moment in history._________________________'Written with novelistic pace and the literary devices of a potboiler, the book is really two in one. The first, an overview of Perceval's neglected career, is sure-footed and worthy. The second, a breathlessly conspiratorial account of his death, is compulsively readable' WALL STREET JOURNAL'Deftly sniffing out political machinations and murderous conspiracies, Linklater has written a richly atmospheric, engrossing and authoritative account of an assassination that, Linklater notes, shook the world 200 years ago as forcefully as JFK's assassination did in our time' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Read more

For nearly 58 years, Elizabeth Bacon Custer was probably the most famous widow in the world. In this lively, fascinating, loving portrait of life on the plains with her already-famous husband, Libbie tells a civilized audience of the excitement, fun, and perils endured at a remote frontier post.Intelligent and beautiful, Libbie was partner, confidant, and booster to the general, as well as an important figure in the social life of the posts he commanded. This book has been used as source material on the general's life as well as the frontier army for well over a century.Celebrated among the prominent people of her day, Libbie never remarried after Custer's death at the Little Bighorn in 1876. She spent the rest of her life writing and lecturing about him, burnishing his reputation and keeping his memory alive.Long a jewel of western Americana, this book continues to find and entertain new audiences in the 21st century. Read more

This book is a history of Danube Street in Edinburgh. It contains a brief explanation of the period of construction of the street followed by 35 short biographies of people who have lived on Danube Street over the past 200 years. Read more

The most notorious, and most contentious, cavalry charge in history still remains an enigma. Though numerous books have been written about the charge, all claiming to 'reveal the truth' or to understand 'the reason why'; exactly what happened at Balaklava on 25 October 1854 continues to be fiercely debated. Voices from the Past, The Charge of the Light Brigade relives that fateful day not through the opinions of such historians but from the words of those that were there. This is the story of the charge told by the soldiers of both sides, in the most detailed description of the Battle of Balaklava yet written. Gallop with the light dragoons and lancers into the mouths of the Russian cannon as the shells and cannonballs decimate their ranks. Read of the desperate efforts to return down the Valley of Death as the enemy pressed around the remnants of the Light Brigade, and of the nine Victoria Crosses won that day. Possibly more significant are the accusations and counter-arguments that followed the loss of the Light Brigade. Just who was responsible for that terrible blunder? The leading figures all defended their own positions, leading to presentations in Parliament and legal action. Yet one of those senior figures made an astonishing admission immediately after the battle, only to change his story when the charge became headline news. Just who was it that made the fatal error that cost the British Army its Light Brigade? Read more

Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman PrizeParis, near the turn of 1932-3. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking…‘It’s not often that you miss your bus stop because you’re so engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly that... The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange, fun and compelling reading. If it doesn’t win awards, I will eat my copy’ Independent on Sunday‘Bakewell shows how fascinating were some of the existentialists’ ideas and how fascinating, often frightful, were their lives. Vivid, humorous anecdotes are interwoven with a lucid and unpatronising exposition of their complex philosophy… Tender, incisive and fair’ Daily Telegraph‘Quirky, funny, clear and passionate… Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand’ Mail on Sunday Read more

Catherine of Braganza has regularly been referred to as ‘the forgotten queen’ and there is much truth in this statement. Following her death in 1705, a fully detailed biography in English remained unwritten until 1915. The last major bio published about her was in Portuguese in 1941 and it has never been translated into English. Despite her sheltered and religious upbringing, she made a spectacular marriage that was plagued by the infidelities of her husbands. Readers can readily find published biographies of Charles II’s many glamourous mistresses, but curiously, little on his wife. This new work presents more comprehensive information on Catherine’s life in Portugal than previous biographies and integrates new scholarship regarding Catherine’s practice of queenship and patronage of Catholic Baroque culture in an effort to carve out a prominent role at the Stuart court and to compete with her rivals. Readers familiar with Catherine’s story may learn some delightful new details about her life. Catherine has never been forgotten in Portugal. She considered herself Portuguese at heart and during her reign as Queen of England, she persistently looked out for Portuguese interests. In her own words, she considered her marriage a personal sacrifice to what was best for her home country. She is one of the few dowager queens in history to return to her homeland where she acted as regent for her brother. This biography places Catherine within the context of the history of Portugal and their seaborne empire, and the strong political and commercial ties between England and Portugal dating to the mid-fourteenth century which played a key role in the culmination of the Marriage Treaty of 1661. Her legacy lives on in her dowry, specifically the port of Bombay which allowed England to become a global empire, introducing many everyday items into European culture. Read more

THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022WINNER OF THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE Eleven years when Britain had no king.In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution.On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley, who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man.The Restless Republic ranges from London to Leith, Cornwall to Connacht, from the corridors of power to the common fields and hillsides. Gathering her cast of trembling visionaries and banished royalists, dextrous mandarins and bewildered bystanders, Anna Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain’s history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution. Read more

In late 1888, only weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche (1844-1900) set out to compose his autobiography, and Ecce Homo remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written. In this extraordinary work Nietzsche traces his life, work and development as a philosopher, examines the heroes he has identified with, struggled against and then overcome - Schopenhauer, Wagner, Socrates, Christ - and predicts the cataclysmic impact of his 'forthcoming revelation of all values'. Both self-celebrating and self-mocking, penetrating and strange, Ecce Homo gives the final, definitive expression to Nietzsche's main beliefs and is in every way his last testament. Read more

This is a book about the life and work of a singular writer, known for his biographies and travel writing but most famous for his novels The Red and the Black and the Charterhouse of Parma. As a child, Stendhal witnessed the unfolding of the French Revolution; as a young man, he served Napoleon first as a soldier and then as an administrator; and, as a middle-aged man, he made it his task not to pursue his career, but instead to take as much paid leave as possible in order to be free and to be happy, and to write. Stendhal’s works often take the form of conversations with his readers – the ‘Happy Few’ as he called them – about the things that matter most. He once claimed that he spent the majority of his life ‘carefully considering five or six main ideas’. This book shows what those main ideas were, why they mattered to Stendhal, and why they continue to matter to his readers. Read more

Jane Austen’s Notebook is a biography with a difference, providing a full and detailed account of Austen’s life and legacy in the form of a personal journal.It examines the author’s personal life, with images of family and friends for clues about how she saw the world, and reveals hidden connections between real-life situations and her fictional works.Includes images of the locations Austen grew up in and visited, plus handwritten quotations and amusing anecdotes to bring the author to life more vividly than any ordinary biography.Reveals the woman behind the writing, how the Austen felt about being published, and examines the amazing impact and enduring legacy of her works. Read more