Classic Histories

During the Second World War daring and highly unusual missions were mounted by the Special Operations Executive (SOE)—formed on Churchill's orders 'to set Europe ablaze'—and its American counterpart, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In sixteen separate chapters the author describes how the fearless individuals in these clandestine organisations were recruited, trained and armed, and examines some of their guerrilla operations in Europe, Africa and the Far East, such as the raid on Fernando Po, the destruction of the Gorgopotamos Bridge in Greece and the strike against Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour. Also covered are the means SOE and OSS used to subvert the enemy, by employing black propaganda, forgery, pornography and black-market currency manipulation. It may well read like fiction, but the stories are fact, and shows to what lengths the Allies were prepared to go to crush the Axis powers.

In 1095 Pope Urban II granted absolution to anyone who would fight to reclaim the Holy Land. With God at their backs, the first Christian crusaders embarked on an unprecedented religious war. While addressing the contribution of flamboyant characters like Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, Malcolm Billings also looks at the experiences of the peasants, knights and fighting monks who took the cross for Christendom and the Holy Warriors of Islam who, after battle on battle, emerged victorious. He analyses the ebb and flow of crusade and counter-crusade and details the shifting structures of government in the Levant, which became the perennial battleground of East and West.

The Vikings hold a particular place in the history of the West, both symbolically and in the significant impact, they had on Northern Europe. Magnus Magnusson's indispensable study of this great period presents a rounded and fascinating picture of a people who, in modern eyes, would seem to embody striking contradictions. They were undoubtedly pillagers, raiders and terrifying warriors, but they were also great pioneers, artists and traders - a dynamic people, whose skill and daring in their exploration of the world has left an indelible impression a thousand years on.

In this new and updated edition of A New History of England, historian Jeremy Black takes a cool and dispassionate look at the vicissitudes of over two millennia of English history. He identifies two central themes: the lack of geographical and economic uniformity within England; and the fact that, from the Roman invasion onwards, a united England was often politically associated with part of Europe, from the Scandinavian Cnut to the German origins of the Hanoverians and their descendants. Professor Black steers his way through the labyrinthine complexities of historical narrative with elegance and clarity, providing a lively analysis of major events and personalities and important underlying themes, taking his account right up to the Brexit controversy.