A reminder that history is a never ending now, a relentless and endless present that comes without the luxury of hindsight.

An original and exciting approach . . . Buckley is one of our very finest historians. The Armchair General adds enormously to our understanding of the conflicts.

[An] impressive history of the capital at war... White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources. He has a good nose for a piquant anecdote and clear-eyed awareness of the failings as well as the fearlessness of Londoners

Jerry White has a unique relation to London and Londoners. More than a historian, he is the city's witness, champion and town-crier... White does not rehearse the cliché of the Blitz spirit. Instead, by giving narrative commentary to the bit players in the drama...he presents a more complex, bleak and confused tale

As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable... From the Myra Hess lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, to the extraordinary resilience and bravery of Londoners... all can be found in this book

Endlessly fascinating... White is such a brilliant historian: he casts his net way beyond the usual territories. His books are consequently peppered with colourful vignettes drawn from all sort of unconventional sources, high and low

This fascinating social history is pieced together as a mosaic of dozens of experiences... White does not shy away from dismantling some of the dearly held myths about the Blitz spirit, but equally his compassion and fondness for London shines through on every page... a rich tapestry of life under fire in the capital.

The definitive and most readable account of the city during the conflict. The Battle of London 1939-45 is the most meticulously researched social history of wartime London that one could ever hope to find... the detail is woven together in such a way, and so colourfully, that it frequently pulls the reader up short with the realisation that the author did not actually experience himself all that he writes about... Almost every page contains a riveting and truly astonishing revelation about that fascinating period in the city's history

White's account is a vivid and highly accessible insight into how ordinary life both turned upside-down and continued in a 'new normal' during a once-in-a-generation emergency that we can now all relate to

Both the terror and the calmness in Jerry White's exemplary social history of London during the war years... [an] illuminating...tour de force

In Wake, Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez use the graphic medium to stunning effect. More than just a history, Wake is a meaningful engagement with a living past. Read this book slowly. Savor the visual metaphors. Let them take you back in time while Hall's narration pins you to the uncomfortable present. Make your reading a shared journey with friends or classmates who can help you uncover the deep meanings and cope with the emotions it raises. This book will haunt you the way that the legacies of slavery haunt this country.

Rebecca Hall makes accessible the historians' craft in the service of telling the powerful stories of women-led slave revolts. Mincing no words, Hall captures the fierceness of Black women's resistance. Infusing the text with her personal story and a sharp historical imagination, Hall never waivers in giving life to this history. She brings into the present stories that must be read and passed on.

Wake's text is spare, informed, tuned to vibrating feeling and thought about historical and contemporary Black women's agency and actions in resistance and rebellion. As powerful as the text, are the astonishing graphics. Reading, I was drawn into frame after frame of graphic action and evocative description. These drawings brought me to tears, recognition, fury, gratitude, solidarity.

Knowing differently is key to the movement as we newly reckon with what has been memorialized in our past. We are lucky to be in Rebecca Hall's wake as we look again toward the future, with fresh eyes from visualizing a deeper relationship to the revolutionary black feminist spirit that brought us here.

Ruth Scurr gives us a captivating, original perspective on a man too often simplified as a glorious - or vainglorious - emperor on horseback. Her sparkling book reminds us of Napoleon's human frailties and, above all, that he was also a man of science fascinated by the order, diversity and richness of the plant world. The origins of modern warfare and of the botanical sciences were fused in this man

From Napoleon's first garden as a schoolboy to his last, on St. Helena, Ruth Scurr takes us on a journey filled with unexpected new vistas on a familiar life. Napoleon: A Life in Gardens and Shadows foregrounds his passion for science and love of the natural world. The result is a refreshing, engaging read

It is hard to find fresh things to say about Napoleon, but Ruth Scurr has managed it. Tracing his engagement with gardens and plants from his boyhood in Corsica to his final years on St. Helena, she reveals a neglected side to the great soldier and emperor. No one interested in Napoleon will fail to discover here something unknown or unexpected

I am desperate to see Ruth Scurr's book about Napoleon . . . it has a glorious conceit. Napoleon is seen through his relationship with gardens, and this feline, stalking approach creates a life of an icon which manages to be different

Both beautifully written, as well as being a delight, both to botanists, horticulturalists, silvologists and, last but not least, Napoleonists

The Napoleonic bibliography is a vast and sprawling thing. Nevertheless, Ruth Scurr . . found an unsuspected gap and has ingeniously filled it with a portrait of Napoleon-as-horticulturist . . . Scurr tracks his rise and fall through his gardens - places of ease in a life of frantic activity

Stimulating and highly original

A fascinating exploration of the Emperor's horticultural interests

A totally enjoyable work and highly original

A beautifully written account of Napoleon's interaction with horticulture

An informative sidelight on the life of the dictator, ranging widely across the intellectual and botanical background of the period

Less a biography...than a study of 18th-century horticulture...Scurr's erudition and ear for anecdote ensure it's a delightful ramble

[A] thoughtful narrative... filling the yawning gap on bookshop shelves between a growing number of modern German history texts and the oversupply of Nazi studies that end in Hitler's bunker

Aftermath takes in the immediate postwar years where Germany was administered by the Allies... Jähner excels

Fascinating... Books about Word War II continue to spill out by the ton, but there has been less attention paid to how Germans coped with the country's shameful Nazi past after the conflict was over

Rarely has a non-fiction book so skilfully combined vividness, drama and eloquence.

Jähner's gripping 500-page X-ray-vision tale of an often overlooked and misperceived phase of German history reveals, like all great history books, as much about the first decade after the war as about today.

Clearly written, full of empathy for everyday life, which is far too seldom taken into consideration... You devour it like a novel.

A popular work of non-fiction in the best sense.