Books for The History Buff

The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger – Signed Copy
The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger – Signed Copy

Robert McCrum

A tale of sportsmanship, chance and obsession, The Penalty Kick by Robert McCrum explores both the addiction of risk, and a doomed father-son relationship that could have been torn from the pages of a late-Victorian novel, inspired by the edgy, ruthless and egalitarian spirit of Northern Ireland.

The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger
The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger

Robert McCrum

A tale of sportsmanship, chance and obsession, The Penalty Kick by Robert McCrum explores both the addiction of risk, and a doomed father-son relationship that could have been torn from the pages of a late-Victorian novel, inspired by the edgy, ruthless and egalitarian spirit of Northern Ireland.

Modern Buildings in London
Modern Buildings in London

Ian Nairn

First published in 1964, Modern Buildings in London is a celebration of the city’s post-war architecture by the famously untrained critic Ian Nairn. Written ‘by a layman for laymen’, Nairn’s take on 260 buildings that were instantly recognisable as ‘modern’ includes descriptions of classic designs such as the Barbican, the former BBC Television Centre, as well as schools, ambulance stations, car parks and even care homes.

How Shostakovich Changed My Mind
How Shostakovich Changed My Mind

Stephen Johnson

Winner of the 2021 Rubery Book Award. BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson (who has Bipolar Disorder himself) explores the power of Shostakovich’s music during Stalin’s reign of terror, and writes of the extraordinary healing effect of music on the mind for sufferers of mental illness.

A Roundabout Manner: Sketches of Life by W. M. Thackeray
A Roundabout Manner: Sketches of Life by W. M. Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray

This is the first ‘sampler’ which covers all of Thackeray’s versatile genius: his cartoons, his journalism, his carefully restrained sentimentality (much to Victorian taste), his cutting satire, his essayism and what one could grandly call the Thackerayan world view.

Epiphany
Epiphany

Each of the books in this collection reveals a moment of sudden, life-changing, epiphany.

Voyage
Voyage

For the armchair traveller, three poetic journeys that fundamentally changed those who took them.

 

The Paradoxal Compass: Drake’s Dilemma
The Paradoxal Compass: Drake’s Dilemma

Horatio Morpurgo

The Paradoxal Compass is both historical narrative and environmental manifesto. Morpurgo compares our own tipping point with the ‘great unsettling’ faced by the Elizabethans more than four centuries ago. As the modern world continues to plunder the ‘infinite store’ of the earth’s riches, Morpurgo explores how our abusive relationship with the natural world began. He asks what the Age of Discovery might have to teach us in the current environmental crisis, as we too reappraise our place in the world.

Attention! A (Short) History
Attention! A (Short) History

Joshua Cohen

A dazzling meditation on the philosophical, scientific, and historical roots of attention, an attempt to pin down this elusive state of being.

Still Life With A Bridle
Still Life With A Bridle

Zbigniew Herbert

A gathering of artful essays by one of Poland’s most translated post-war writers. Poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert takes an intriguing look at the cultural, artistic, and aesthetic legacy of 17th-century Holland.

The Road to Apocalypse: The Extraordinary Journey of Lewis Way
The Road to Apocalypse: The Extraordinary Journey of Lewis Way

Stanley Price Munro Price

In 1811 eccentric millionaire Lewis Way had an epiphany on the road to Exmouth. From that moment he devoted himself to one goal: the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, revealing a forgotten life story.

Wandering Jew: The Search for Joseph Roth
Wandering Jew: The Search for Joseph Roth

Dennis Marks

In this revealing ‘psycho-geography’, Dennis Marks makes a journey through the eastern border­lands of Europe to uncover the truth about Roth’s lost world. The result is a riveting and involving documentary that reunites Roth with his creative and spiritual landscape.

No products have been found