A definitive new history of the Persian Empire, the world's first superpower.

A TABLET AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted for the Wingate Literary Prize

'A tremendous feat of storytelling, propelled by numerous twists and revelations, yet anchored by a deep moral seriousness . . . Enthralling' Guardian

Across the world the last Nazi trials are winding their way through the courts. Nearly a century on from the Holocaust, survivors are still asked to give proof - and, in an era of rising revisionism and denialism, have their stories questioned. In this ...

'A revolutionary book' Sunday Times

'A pulsating account' Peter Frankopan

*A SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR*

How did the People's Republic of China transform from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today? Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen archival documents, award-winning historian Frank Dikötter recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers alike celebrate as an economic miracle. In a fascinating tale spanning f...

When we picture the ancient world, we tend to envision the soaring pyramids of Giza, the Coliseum conquests in Rome and the bustling agora of Athens. Indeed, the classical authors who shape our understanding of the world considered the edges of these ancient civilisations the domain of monstrous humanity. For these writers, from Ovid to Herodotus, the outer reaches of the world was where civilisation, or their conception of civilisation, ceased to exist. But at the borders of the empires we n...

A vividly drawn Joint biography of four extraordinary Renaissance women writers who have been rescued from obscurity by scholar and critically acclaimed author, Ramie Targoff.

Hugh Aldersey-Williams transports us to the Dutch Golden Age - a time of immense scientific and artistic innovation - in this histo-biography of Christiaan Huygens, one of Europe's leading, yet unsung, thinkers.

A brilliantly readable history of privacy with a simple and urgent argument: private life is a precious and sustaining resource that must be defended.

In The Houses of Guinness, bestselling author Adrian Tinniswood explores the history and legacy of the legendary Guinness family through their mansions and town houses, to coincide with a major new Netflix series on the origins of the great brewing dynasty.