Great Britain

Sixteen hundred years ago, Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea and established themselves as its new masters....

Professor Alice Roberts combines archaeological finds with cutting-edge DNA research and written history to shed fresh light on how people lived: by examining the stories of the dead....

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook....

In 16th-century Europe, two women came to hold all the power, against all the odds. They were Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici....

From the best-selling author of The Templars, Dan Jones' epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built....

Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London - the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper....  

This brilliant new audiobook explores the lives of eight generations of the greatest kings and queens that this country has ever seen, and the worst. The Plantagenets - their story is the story of Britain....

Here is the whole of recorded British royal history, from the legendary King Alfred the Great onwards, including the monarchies of England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom for over a thousand years...

Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about ourselves and our history: how people came and went, how we came to be on this island....

Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War....

Discover the stories of the brave men and women who worked, trained and fought across the UK, from Bletchley Park in southern England all the way to Arisaig in northern Scotland, in an unbelievable effort to defeat the Nazis and win the Second World War.

Best-selling author and historian Lucy Worsley tracks a new course through Queen Victoria's life, examining how she transformed from dancing princess to the Widow of Windsor....

Tony Blair is the politician who defines our times....

From much loved historian Neil Oliver comes a whole new insight on our past, told through 100 remarkable, unforgettable stories....

Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat....

In the latest volume of his celebrated series of Time Traveller's Guides - after the Middle Ages, Elizabethan England and Restoration Britain - Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most loved period in British history: the Regency (a.k.a. Georgian England)....

Where would Britain be without coal? In this brilliant social history, Jeremy Paxman tells the story of how the black stuff has shaped every aspect of Britain....

The finest fighting force in the world. Escape. Evade. Survive. Repeat. Seven gripping tales of overcoming the impossible....

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Vulcan 607 by Rowland White, read by Roy McMillan....

The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other and tearing down the old order. Jessie Childs plunges the listener into the shock of the struggle through one of its most dramatic episodes: the siege of Basing House....

Tracy Borman takes us behind the scenes to reveal the intimate secrets of the Tudor court and the private lives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I and more....

'If Hitler fails to invade or destroy Britain, he has lost the war,' Churchill said in the summer of 1940. He was right. The Battle of Britain was a crucial turning point in the history of the Second World War.... 

 England's Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States....

This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history: how and why did the Holocaust happen? Find out....

With original insights from those who know her best, unseen papers, new interviews with world leaders and a fresh perspective on the longest reign in British history, Robert Hardman tells the full life story of the most famous woman in the world....

More nations have vanished from this Earth than exist today. It is hard to imagine that Scotland or India will one day not exist, yet history is the graveyard of nations. This is the story of one such country, because like a once mighty ship who has sunk into the ocean of history, its wreckage and remains are meager. It is the story of a Kingdom called Alt Clut that existed for 600, perhaps 700 years, and is now almost unheard of. The story of Alt Clut only survives in archaeological finds, linguistic whispers, the chronicles of its neighbors and enemies, poetry, and legends.

Do you remember collecting shrapnel and listening to Children's Hour? Carrying gas masks or sharing your school with evacuees from the city? The 1940s was a decade of challenges for everyone who lived through it. The hardships and fear created by a world war were immense. Britain's towns and cities were being bombed on an almost nightly basis, and many children faced the trauma of being parted from their parents and sent away to the country to live with strangers. For just over half of this decade the war continued, meaning food and clothing shortages became a way of life.

In 16th-century Europe, two women came to hold all the power, against all the odds. They were Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. One a Virgin Queen who ruled her kingdom alone, and the other a clandestine leader who used her children to shape the dynasties of Europe, much has been written about these iconic women. But nothing has been said of their complicated relationship: 30 years of friendship, competition and conflict that changed the face of Europe.

What is the mind? How does it relate to the body and soul? These questions were as perplexing for the Elizabethans as they are for us today—although their answers were often startlingly different. Shakespeare and his contemporaries believed the mind was governed by the humors and passions, and was susceptible to the Devil’s interference. In this insightful and wide-ranging account, Helen Hackett explores the intricacies of Elizabethan ideas about the mind. 

When William the Conqueror died in 1087, he left the throne of England to William Rufus . . . his second son. The result was an immediate war as Rufus's elder brother Robert fought to gain the crown he saw as rightfully his; this conflict marked the start of 400 years of bloody disputes as the English monarchy's line of hereditary succession was bent, twisted, and finally broken when the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, fell at Bosworth in 1485.

Scotland’s history led its people through many a dark passage: even from its earliest prehistory, this proud nation suffered at the hands of conquerors and invaders. From the Vikings to the Normans and the English—everyone wanted to reign over proud and wild Alba. In the late 1200s and early 1300s, however, the people of Scotland finally stood up and sought the light of freedom: They led a series of wars that would gain them their independence. Many leaders and commanders appeared during this time. Only one emerged as King of the Scots and led the nation to its independence.

How did descendants of Viking marauders came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East? It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. 

In this book, we explore British Colonialism in India, a history of oppression and exploitation, whilst celebrating the contributions that the diaspora and its descendants have made to British society. We explore the origins of the British East India Company, navigating through the dark history of a struggle for independence. On the way we meet Mahatma Gandhi, and recognize his significance in the fight for independence, before we discuss the partition of India and creation of Pakistan. We conclude with Indian emigration to the UK, and the history of the modern-day British Indian.

The Chronicle is one of the most ambitious productions ever commissioned. An epic eye-witness history of the last five hundred years, told entirely in the words of those who were there. Performed by an outstanding cast of actors in a dramatised setting, we take you on a daily journey from January 1st to December 31st to reveal a fascinating and intriguing record of life as witnessed by some of history’s most colourful characters.

The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics.

The Holy Grail, the kingdom of Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, and the magical sword Excalibur are all key ingredients of the legends surrounding King Arthur. But who was he really, where did he come from, and how much of what we read about him in stories that date back to the Dark Ages is true? So far, historians have failed to show that King Arthur really existed at all, and for a good reason—they have been looking in the wrong place. In this book, Alistair Moffat shatters all existing assumptions about Britain's most enigmatic hero.

The Picts were an ancient nation who ruled most of northern and eastern Scotland during the Dark Ages. Despite their historical importance, they remain shrouded in myth and misconception. Absorbed by the kingdom of the Scots in the ninth century, they lost their unique identity, their language, and their vibrant artistic culture. Among their few surviving traces are standing stones decorated with incredible skill and covered with enigmatic symbols.

Royal biographer Helen Cathcart's fascinatingly intimate account charts Elizabeth's extraordinary life, from her birth and early years growing up in the royal palaces—sleeping in the dungeons of Windsor Castle during the air raids of the Blitz—through to her marriage to Prince Philip in 1947, and their life together as new parents.

The joint British and US campaigns in the European theater of operations during World War II rank among the most impressive examples of coalition warfare in history. In just eighteen months, the US and British armies integrated their planning, intelligence, and command structures more thoroughly than any previous alliance.

In the Early Middle Ages, the Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group that resided in England. They traced their roots back to the arrival of incomers to Britain in the fifth century. The contact between a Germanic tribe and native British populations led to the Anglo-Saxon identity. A lot of the native tribes ultimately incorporated and embraced Anglo-Saxon society and language. The Anglo-Saxons established the idea and Kingdom of England, and the modern English language owes practically 26 percent of its vocabulary to them, including the great bulk of words used in daily discussion.