Startlingly original... This is history at its most synoptic, weaving together disparate themes in a counterpoint of science and aesthetics, race and reclamation, hydrology and mythology

This book offers a fresh insight into this passage of German history and will interest engineers, ecologists, economists, politicians and historians alike

Sublimely good... Blackbourn has found an original and suggestive way into the history of both Germany's aggrandisement and its humility... far more than a good book on an out-of-the-way subject

David Blackbourn has written an entertainingly original history, rich in insights into man and nature and the German - in fact, the European - mind

Brilliantly conceived, David Blackbourn's thought-provoking exploration of the ambivalence built into past attempts to exploit the environment offers a wholly novel approach to understanding modern German history. His book is a tour de force in historical writing

A wide-ranging and highly original study... Blackbourn weaves elegantly among the disciplines, integrating the histories of science, technology, politics, diplomacy, culture and ecology into a nuanced and many-layered analysis of change

A significant contribution to new ways of writing about the past… magnificently compelling

The Norman Conquest is a scrupulously researched and well-written book. But it is also that rare thing: a work undertaken with enormous integrity. Dr Morris questions the received wisdom from past scholars, considers the Conquest and its aftermath anew, and expresses his findings with great conscientiousness.

A muscular, vivid narrative full of compelling historical insight – not just a brilliantly told story, but required reading for anyone interested in the real 1066 and all that.

As this book immodestly reveals, Tony Blair was, and remains, a remarkable influence on politics, both domestically and internationally

What makes his memoir so absorbing as it swings from clever phrase-making and thoughtful contemporary history to wince-inducing self-analysis, is that he is the first of a generation of politicians to conduct their craft as if observing themselves from an amused an admiring distance - and then to write about it. No recent politician has examines his own motives and psychology quite so candidly

It is the small revelations about the character of Blair that make this book worthwhile

It's a gripping insight into the ex-PM's ten years of power . . . It will take a lot for many people to read his own take on the rise and fall of New Labour, but those that do might be reminded of the charm and vision that swept him to power

I have read many a prime ministerial memoir and none of the other authors has been as self-deprecating, as willing to admit mistakes and to tell jokes against themselves

Paints a candid picture of his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and of their relationship