Essential…The First Tour de France takes you back to the race itself. Cossins produces a deeply researched and detailed description of the race that toggles between background information on the race’s organization and the individual stages, with long stretches of real-time-style stage reporting one chapter at a time.The effect of this, especially the latter, is soaring

Enthralling… Full of outlandish characters and ripping yarns, it makes for a cracking good read

Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading

A chilling book, chilling but fascinating ... People on both sides - or some of them - are likely to read Martin Dillon, and to learn from him

Dillon's books are a working lifetime's brave and persistent effort to get information of a kind which, as he frankly says, can be perilous to possess, let alone to reveal

Dillon is recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand the complexities of British - Irish politics. He stands alone as one of the most creative writers of our time

This will make you squirm

[An] intelligent, richly detailed and comprehensive survey.

The Age of Decadence will be consulted with pleasure by the general reader as well as by the student . . . So well written that one would not have it a page shorter.

The rise of the middle class is just one of the grand narratives that runs through its pages, along with Irish Home Rule, women’s suffrage and a taste of Elgar . . . A really riveting read.

This is scholarship of a high order: an impressive ability to synthesise wide-ranging sources and provide a cogent, readable narrative is spiced by the confident opinions, not to say barbs, of the newspaper columnist.

Covers as much ground as the miles of Edwardian housing spreading out along the new Tube lines of London, and is as packed with pompous politicians as the House of Commons was on a busy day in the debate about Irish Home Rule. The fact that I now know about all those things shows how rewarding the book is.

An account of the thirty years or so leading up to the First World War . . . [Heffer] is interested in exploring the political and social tumult of the time, which really can’t be exaggerated

Simon Heffer’s Age of Decadence covers a period of British history – 1880 to 1914 – that few would at first sight equate with decadence. As the British Empire reached its height, stiff upper lips seemed more in evidence than the louche trappings of decadence. Yet Heffer makes a convincing (and beautifully written) case that those upper lips were in fact quivering away, as the world went clanking towards its destruction.

Heffer’s history of fin-de-siècle Britain is full of decadent delights . . . Richly and wittily written.

There is a view, commonly held, that grand narrative histories are a thing of the past . . . This view is mistaken, as Simon Heffer proves happily and beyond doubt with his latest book.

There is much to enjoy in this long account, packed with detail.

A superb history

Beautifully written and packed with intriguing facts, [The Age of Decadence] is an engaging read that will appeal to historians and general readers alike . . . Superb.

A social, political and cultural history of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, carefully examining the contradictions of the period . . . Highly readable.

[Heffer] has really excelled himself with this epic study of Britain in the years before the First World War. Majestic in its scope, meticulous in its scholarship, compelling in its thesis and stylish in its prose, his heavyweight book challenges the familiar historical tale of confidence and swagger and presents the age in a more complex, sombre light . . . The author has done an extraordinary amount of research, unearthing a wealth of new material from archives. . . . It is impossible to read this magnificent work without gaining a deep new understanding of a unique and troubled age.

[One of] the best historical books to gift others this Christmas.

Heffer has turned himself into one of Britain’s most accomplished and formidable men of letters . . . Heffer is a genuine intellectual with a shelf of books to his credit.

An epic survey . . . Simon Heffer’s intricately detailed account ends with Britain diminished and on the brink of catastrophe.

London's Big Read wants to get the capital talking about [Brit(ish)] ... a personal and provocative exploration of British history, race, identity and belonging.

Afua Hirsch's new book uses the personal and political to take a good look at what it's like to be a person of colour here, now. Here's where you'll get an insight into what it means to be a mixed race and univocally British, yet continuously plagued with the question 'but where are you really from?'

An excellent read.

[A] personal and admirably honest account of her journey towards self-realisation as a woman of colour.

A fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain

Afua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.

It is a life-shaping read.

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues