A GUARDIAN, ECONOMIST AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A superb book' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'An empowering story of human ingenuity' Economist

'Full of curious facts' The Times

Causes of death have changed irrevocably across time. In the course of a few centuries we have gone from a world where disease or violence were likely to strike anyone at any age, and where famine could be just one bad harvest away, to one where in many countries excess food is more of a problem than a lack of it. Why h...

An engaging popular history of the magically enchanting early-English civilization on which Tolkien based his world of The Lord of the Rings.

A compelling and fascinating portrait of the continuing intellectual tradition of Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome.

In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to ...

An urgent, updated reissue of the essential book on the myths-and reality-behind the state of Israel

The story of the rise and fall of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate (1653-9), England's sole experiment in republican government – and one of the most extraordinary but neglected periods in British history.

The riveting history of the strange science of the 'Normal', and the origins of an anxiety-ridden modern obsession

An entertaining collection of strange, delightful and unexpectedly apt words from the origins of English.

A beguiling history of ten pathfinding women walkers.

A new and definitive account of the anti-Nazi underground in Germany and its numerous efforts to assassinate Adolf Hitler.