Early Britain

For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction. It has been...

A magical journey through the world’s oldest tales, retold with clarity and wonder and brought to life with striking original linocut art. Storyland begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants, covers the founding of Britain, England...

This is the history of Scotland from the earliest times of human habitation to around the mid 14th century. This book details the long forgotten people and events that created the foundations of Scotland and, indeed, Britain - and explains why things are the way they are, exploring the roots of the long running antagonism between Scotland and England. Mistakes, successes, disasters, reasons as well as pinpointing the exact events that created such a long lasting rivalry between Scotland and its nearest neighbour. It also explains that after a bloody start forged in harsh times, how an ...

Bronze age action adventure. In a world dominated by the unknown, where the unexplained is justified by talk of gods and spirits, the appearance of a lowly slave, gifted with exceptional combat skills, provides both hope and opportunity to a group of villages under threat from a ruthless raider lord. Even in the face of such a grave threat, the prospect of power, taints and corrupts those entrusted with the wellbeing of their own people. Could it be that the independent people of the marshes might choose to unite, not behind a chief or a religious figure, but a young warrior, with an honest...

The Birth of a Realm: Kings, Kingdoms, and the Making of England is a sweeping, immersive journey through more than fifteen centuries of British history—beginning in the fading light of Roman Britain, moving through the storm‑tossed world of the Heptarchy, and culminating in the ceremonial splendour and constitutional role of today’s modern monarchy under King Charles III. This richly detailed narrative traces how England emerged not through inevitability, but through conflict, adaptation, cultural fusion, and the enduring human search for order. From the collapse of Roman ...

From the Stone Age to the 21st century, The History of Britain chronicles the epic story of this small but turbulent kingdom. Divided into major historical periods, this book covers both well-known and obscure events. Find out about the Norman invasions, the execution of Charles I, the uprisings in Dark Age Wales, the birth of tabloid newspapers in Victorian Britain, and much more. Fully revised and updated to include the latest political developments, this fascinating book helps listeners to navigate this vast and enthralling history.

From the founding of Britain to the crowning of Alfred the Great, in this updated volume, Geoffrey Ashe investigates legendary British monarchs of old. From Brutus the Trojan in 1100 BC, and the early famed rulers Bran the Blessed and King Lear to the leaders of Roman Britain, Boudicca, and Alfred. Drawing on archaeological and documentary evidence, Ashe identifies real and imagined rulers from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain and Gildas, including King Arthur and other powerful figures in the histories of England, Scotland, and Wales.

One of the classic volumes of autobiography, My Early Life is a lively and colourful account of a young man's quest for action, adventure and danger. Churchill's schooldays are undistinguished, but he is admitted to Sandhurst and embarks on a career as a soldier and a war correspondent, seeing action in Cuba, in India, in the Sudan - where he took part in the battle of Omdurman, of which he gives us a stirring account - and finally in South Africa.

An evocative journey into early medieval Britain, where myth and wilderness intertwine – brought to life by Amy Jeffs’ original linocut art. Step into the wilderness of early medieval Britain with Wild, a captivating collection of myths, legends, and reimagined tales from the sixth to tenth...

A Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 'Popular history at its best' Spectator 'Boisterous… replete with stabbings, bashing and thumping' Daily Mail 'A cocktail of brutal, tragic, and fascinating true crime from the era of the Tudors and Stuarts. This dark history at its...

Before soccer became the world’s game, it had to become a game at all. In the nineteenth century, football was not yet the clean, global sport we recognize today. It was a disputed pastime, a school tradition, a local habit, a working-class obsession, a moral argument, and eventually a national institution. Its rules had to be written. Its competitions had to be invented. Its clubs had to survive. Its players had to choose between amateur ideals and professional reality. Its crowds had to be understood. Its stories had to be remembered. Making the People’s Game tells the story of how ...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an epic saga of intrigue and mystique set in Edwardian England. Cavendon Hall is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her very best, and its sweeping story of secrets, love, honor, and betrayal will have readers riveted up to the very last word. Cavendon...

‘Grimly fascinating … engrossing’ Daily Mail NINE HISTORIC CRIMES. ONE FAMILIAR OBSESSION. In early modern England, murder truly was most foul. Trials were gossipy events packed to the rafters with noisome spectators. Executions were public proceedings which promised not only gore, but...

Aaron Sullivan explores the British occupation of Philadelphia, chronicling the experiences of a group of people who were pursued, pressured, and at times persecuted, not because they chose the wrong side of the Revolution but because they tried not to choose a side at all. For these people, the war was neither a glorious cause to be won nor an unnatural rebellion to be suppressed, but a dangerous and costly calamity to be navigated with care. Both the Patriots and the British referred to this group as "the disaffected".

Over the span of two hundred years, Great Britain established, governed, lost, and reconstructed an empire that embraced three continents and two oceanic worlds. The British ruled this empire by correlating incoming information about the conduct of subjects and aliens in imperial spaces with norms of good governance developed in London. Officials derived these norms by studying the histories of government contained in the official records of both the state and corporations and located in repositories known as archives.

The year is 448, forty years after the Roman legions left the people of Britannia to defend themselves. The old ways of Rome still linger but they are weakening with the passing years. Many long for Rome to return, others have given up all hope of it. Some wish to rule in any way they see fit. Proconsul Virgilius still maintains power in the realm but he is aging and his grip is failing. He does not trust his two sons and relies on the advice of Ambrosius Aurelianus. A descendent of emperors, Ambrosius wishes to renew the severed links with the empire. But now the first of a series of ...

Bloomsbury presents Electronic Dreams by Tom Lean, read by Mark Meadows Remember the ZX Spectrum? How about the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, or Commodore 64? Did you marvel at the immense galaxies of Elite or master digital kung-fu in Way of the Exploding Fist? For anyone growing up in the 1980s...

It started with Monday. But it doesn't end with Sunday. Read Sunday Silence, the new novel in the series that LOUISE PENNY calls ""fabulous, unsettling, and riveting"" — and brace yourself for the breathtaking series finale in summer 2018. Lover of London, gifted psychologist, frequent police...

Bloomsbury presents Conquered by Eleanor Parker, read by Kristin Atherton. "Outstanding." – The Sunday Times "Beautifully written." The Times "Superbly adroit." The Spectator "Excellent." BBC History Magazine The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath nearly wiped out the leading families of...

The Cavendon Women, the stunning sequel to Barbara Taylor Bradford's Cavendon Hall follows the Inghams' and the Swanns' journey from a family weekend in the summer of 1926 through to the devastation of the Wall Street crash of 1929. It all begins on a summer weekend in July of 1926 when, for the...