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...

The seventy-one-year quest to find the world's highest mountain.

From the bestselling author of Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain comes a book that will reconnect, engross and indulge readers in wild landscapes and pause to reflect on our current position and relationship with nature.

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

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.

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

From the famous Arthurian legends to monsters and faeries, The Little Book of Folklore explores the magical and mystical tales that have shaped the British Isles. Filled with stories of iconic characters like Robin Hood and Merlin, as well as lesser-known tales of giants and witches, this book is a beginner's guide to this world of myth and wonder.

Award-winning Steven Strogatz, one of the foremost popularisers of maths, has written a witty and fascinating account of maths' most compelling ideas and how, so often, they are an integral part of everyday life.

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 ...