History, Military History, PoliticsNon-fiction 2015Talking Books

The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.

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History

Ashdown-Hill, John. The last days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA. 2013. TB 20349.A new and uniquely detailed exploration of Richard III's last 150 days, the lead-up to the Battle of Bosworth Field and the aftermath. Then there is why, and how, Richard III's family tree was traced until a relative was found, alive and well, in Canada and how this inspired the dig that led to the discovery of Richard's skeleton at the Greyfriars Priory in Leicester. Read by Jonathan Oliver. 7 hours 14 minutes. TB 20349.

Bailey, Catherine. The secret rooms: a true gothic mystery. 2012. TB 20072.In April 1940, the ninth Duke of Rutland died in mysterious circumstances in one of the rooms of his family estate, Belvoir Castle. 60 years on, 'The Secret Rooms' is the true story of family secrets and one man's determination to keep the past hidden at any cost. Read by Teresa Quiqley. 14 hours 31 minutes. TB 20072.

Barrett, Duncan. The sugar girls: tales of hardship, love and happiness in Tate and Lyle's East End factories. 2012. TB 19673.In the years leading up to and after the Second World War, many women left school at 14 to work in the bustling factories of London's East End. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate & Lyle's where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life. 'The Sugar Girls' recalls memories of this era. Read by Anna Harwich. 11 hours 23 minutes. TB 19673.

Benson, Richard. The valley: a hundred years in the life of a family. 2014. TB21628.The Dearne Valley lies at the heart of the South Yorkshire coalfield. In 1945 that coalfield had sixty-seven pits; today only two survive. Following four generations of his mother's family, Benson depicts a community characterised not by the stereotype of

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doughty, unassuming labourers and housewives, but driven individuals relentless in the pursuit of their dreams. Read by Sean Baker. 19 hours 37 minutes. TB21628.

Bideleux, Robert. A history of Eastern Europe: crisis and change. 2007. TB 19176.Provides coverage of the complex history of this region from antiquity to the present day. Taking into account the expansion of the European Union, the authors discuss the political, social and economic developments that have shaped the region. Read by Alistair Maydon. 61 hours 52 minutes. TB 19176.

Blackburn, Robin. The American crucible: slavery, emancipation and human rights. 2011. TB 19268.A history of the rise and abolition of slavery in the Americas covers such topics as the plantation revolution of the seventeenth century, the emergence of anti-slavery thought, and the contributions of such figures as Thomas Paine and Frederick Douglass. Read by Mike Aherne. 22 hours 47 minutes. TB 19268.

Carrasco, David. City of sacrifice: the Aztec Empire and the role of violence in civilization. 2000. TB 20297.The story of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is chronicled and Aztec religious practices investigated with the conclusion that religious violence was integral to urbanization. Read by Matt Addis. 10 hours 53 minutes. TB 20297.

Castor, Helen. She-wolves: the women who ruled England before Elizabeth. 2011. TB 20309.The four subjects of this book, Matilda, lady of the English, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of Valois and Margaret of Anjou, found that it was entirely acceptable to exercise power as the delegate or adjunct of a ruling male, but not in their own right. Castor looks at how these women ruled and examines the pattern of English thought and how it changed over more than 400 years of history. Read by Jill Lamede. 20 hours 33 minutes. TB 20309.

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Castor, Helen. Blood and roses: the Paston family in the fifteenth century. 2005. TB 19751.The Paston letters are the oldest surviving family correspondence in English, written during the Wars of the Roses. The author sets out the letters in the context of those turbulent times, relating the tangled politics of the family's affairs to those of the nation as a whole.Read by Jill Lamede. 18 hours 32 minutes. TB 19751.

Cooper, J P D. The Queen's agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I. 2011. TB 19862.The story of secret agents, cryptic codes and ingenious plots, set in a turbulent period of England's history. It is also the story of a man devoted to his queen, sacrificing his every waking hour to save the threatened English state. Contains strong language. Read by John Cooper. 12 hours 5 minutes. TB 19862.

Davies, Norman. Vanished kingdoms: the history of half-forgotten Europe. 2012. TB 20345.A fresh perspective on the history of Europe. Areas covered include the Visigoths in France and Spain; Aragon in northern Spain; the area that is now Belarus and Lithuania; Byzantium; Prussia; northern Italy; Galicia; Italy around Florence in the 19th century; Saxe-Coburg in Germany; Montenegro, which used to be part of Yugoslavia; Ireland since 1916; the Soviet Union and many others. Read by Chris Courtenay. 32 hours 22 minutes. TB 20345.

Davis, Wade. Into the silence: the Great War, Mallory and the conquest of Everest. 2012. TB 20260.While the quest for Mount Everest may have begun as a grand imperial gesture, it ended as a mission of revival for a country and a lost generation bled white by war. In a monumental work of history and adventure, Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest in 1924, but rather why he kept climbing on that fateful day. Read by Jon Cartwright. 28 hours 23 minutes. TB 20260.

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De Courcy, Anne. The fishing fleet: husband-hunting in the Raj. 2013. TB 20215.From the late 19th century, when the Raj was at its height, many of Britain's best and brightest young men went out to India to work. Countless young women, suffering at the lack of eligible men, followed in their wake and became known as 'the fishing fleet'.Read by Greta Scacchi. 13 hours 7 minutes. TB 20215.

De Lisle, Leanda. Tudor: the family story. 2013. TB 21126.A dynasty's rise and fall. Presenting a family struggling at every turn to establish their right to the throne. A family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure influence and the family line.Read by Jane McDowell. 15 hours 47 minutes.

Dalrymple, William. Return of a king: the battle for Afghanistan. 2013. TB 20313.In the spring of 1839 British forces invaded Afghanistan for the first time, re-establishing Shah Shuja on the throne and ushering in a period of conflict over the territory still unresolved today. Read by Jon Cartwright. 19 hours 59 minutes. TB 20313.

Edsel, Robert M. Monuments men. 2010. TB 21421.From 1943 to 1951, 350 or so men and women from 13 Allied nations served in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the Allied armed forces. This was the most ambitious effort in history to preserve the world's cultural heritage in times of war. They were known simply as “Monuments Men”. This is their story. Read by Jeff Harding. 15 hours 1 minute. TB21421.

Feeney, Paul. A 1950s childhood: from tin baths to bread and dripping. 2009. TB 20711.From waking up to ice on the inside of the windows, washing in a tin bath by the fire and spoonfuls of cod-liver oil, home life was very different to today. This delightful compendium of memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade, whether in town or country, wealth or poverty.Read by Richard Derrington. 5 hours 42 minutes. TB 20711.

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Feeney, Paul. A 1960s childhood: from Thunderbirds to Beatlemania. 2010. TB21453.Do you remember Beatlemania? Radio Caroline? Mods and Rockers? The very first miniskirts? Life in the 1960s was a boom period, a time of changed attitudes and improved lifestyles. The changing times after the tough and frugal years of the fifties are depicted here from home and school life, games and hobbies to music and fashion. Read by Bob Rollett. 6 hours 33 minutes.

Flanders, Judith. The Victorian city: everyday life in Dickens' London. 2012. TB 20218.A masterly recreation of Victorian London, whose raucous streets and teeming denizens inspired and permeated the works of Charles Dickens. Contains strong language. Read by Kate Hambly. 17 hours 34 minutes. TB 20218.

Fraser, Antonia. Perilous question: the drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832. 2013. TB 20710.'Perilous Question' evokes a key period of pre-Victorian political and social history - the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. For our inconclusive times, there is an attractive resonance with 1832, with its 'rotten boroughs' of Old Sarum and the disappearing village of Dunwich, and its lines of most resistance to reform.Read by Helen Bourne. 14 hours 23 minutes. TB 20710.

Fryer, Peter. Staying power: the history of black people in Britain. 2010. TB 19403. Staying Power is recognised as the definitive history of black people in Britain, an epic story that begins with the Roman conquest and continues to this day. In a comprehensive account, Peter Fryer reveals how Africans, Asians and their descendants, previously hidden from history, have profoundly influenced and shaped events in Britain over the course of the last two thousand years. Read by Bob Rolett. 24 hours 7 minutes. TB 19403.

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Glendinning, Victoria. Raffles and the golden opportunity, 1781-1826. 2012. TB 20274.Raffles remains a controversial figure, with a personal life shot through with tragedy. Here his prodigious rise is put within social and historical contexts. Read by Helen Cashin. 13 hours 23 minutes. TB 20274.

Glenny, Misha. The Balkans, 1804-1999: nationalism, war and the great powers. 2000. TB 19203.This text is a survey of two centuries of history, providing a background on the events happening in the Balkans. It provides insights into the roots of the region's reputation and explains the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and others. Read by Jon Cartwright. 29 hours 13 minutes. TB 19203.

Gregson, Jonathan. Cathedrals in a nutshell. 2010. TB 21155.A guide to the development of the cathedral from its earliest beginnings as a Bishops house, through the Romanesque and Gothic Periods and up to the most extravagant contemporary designs around the world.Read by Jonathan Gregson. 1 hour 21 minutes. TB 21155.

Grose, Peter. The greatest escape: how one French community saved thousands of lives from the Nazis. 2014. TB21585.Right through the Second World War the community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon saved the lives of 5000 men, women and children from the Nazi occupiers and their Vichy stooges. Of those saved approximately 3500 were of Jewish descent. Read by Richard Burnip. 11 hours 31 minutes. TB21585.

Hawksley, Lucinda. The mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's rebellious daughter. 2013. TB21380.The life of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise has previously been documented more by rumour and gossip than hard facts. When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate it, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating

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woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.Read by Fenella Fudge. 15 hours 21 minutes.

Hibbert, Christopher. The Borgias. 2012. TB 19817.The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. Hibbert removes the layers of myth around the Borgia family and creates a portrait alive with his superb sense of character and place. Read by John Telfer. 9 hours 24 minutes. TB 19817.

Higginbotham, Susan. The Woodvilles: the Wars of the Roses and England's most infamous family. 2013. TB 21134.In 1464, the most eligible bachelor in England, Edward IV, stunned the nation by revealing his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful, impoverished widow whose father and brother Edward himself had once ridiculed as upstarts and so bringing them into the thick of the Wars of the Roses. Read by Sherry Baines. 10 hours 18 minutes. TB 21134.

Higgins, Charlotte. Under another sky: journeys in Roman Britain. 2014. TB21335.An exploration of what the idea of 'Roman Britain' has meant to those who came after Britain's 400-year stint as province of Rome, through history and now. Charlotte Higgins set out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a VW campervan.Read by Monica Kendall. 10 hours 51 minutes. TB21335.

Hilton, Christopher. The Wall: the people's story. 2011. TB 19213.Based on hundreds of interviews with officials, politicians and ordinary people, 'The Wall' tells the complete story of the division of the city of Berlin and of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Contains strong language. Read by Damian Lynch. 16 hours 5 minutes. TB 19213.

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Hodge, Susie. Secrets of the Knights Templar: the hidden history of the world's most powerful order. 2013. TB21663.The Knights Templar is one of the most secretive and powerful religious orders in history: for over two centuries they were the elite fighting force of the Crusades. The legends and secrecy surrounding the order and its Grand Masters continue to fascinate and these are examined here to reveal the truth about the Knights' secret practices, rituals and codes, as well as the continued influence of the Templars today.Read by Sherry Baines. 10 hours 4 minutes.

Holland, Tom. In the shadow of the sword: the battle for global empire and the end of the ancient world. 2012. TB 20096.Spanning Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived, Tom Holland tells a story vivid with drama, horror and startling achievement. Read by Steve Hodson. 20 hours 50 minutes. TB 20096.

James, Lawrence. Churchill and empire: portrait of an imperialist. 2014. TB 21465.An examination of Churchill’s political and military experiences that shaped his views of Empire and ultimately led to his rejection by the British voters after a Second World War in which he had – it was universally felt – led the country brilliantly. Read by Gareth Armstrong. 14 hours 8 minutes. TB 21465.

Jeal, Tim. Explorers of the Nile: the triumph and the tragedy of a great Victorian adventure. 2011. TB 19219.Between 1856 and 1876, five explorers, all British, took on the seemingly impossible task of discovering the source of the White Nile. Using new research, Tim Jeal tells the story of these great expeditions, while also examining the tragic consequences the Nile search has had on Uganda and Sudan to this day. Read by Robin Houston. 17 hours 14 minutes. TB 19219.

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Judah, Tim. The Serbs: history, myth and the destruction of Yugoslavia. 2009. TB 19222.This in-depth account of life behind Serbian lines is not an apologia, but a scrupulous explanation of how the people of a modernising European state could become among the most reviled of the century. Contains violence and strong language. Read by Peter Crerar. 19 hours 18 minutes. TB 19222.

Keay, John. China. 2009. TB 20228.This narrative history of China takes in everything from the earliest times to the present day, applying an approach devoid of Euro-centric bias. It also examines the many non-Chinese elements in China's history, such as the impact of Buddhism and foreign trade. Read by Peter Crerar. 26 hours 29 minutes. TB 20228.

Khan, Imran. Pakistan: a personal history. 2011. TB 19223.'Pakistan' tells the fascinating history of the country, as seen through the eyes of its most famous son, Imran Khan. Read by Amerjit Deu. 11 hours 48 minutes. TB 19223.

Kynaston, David. Modernity Britain, 1957-59. 2013. TB 20922.The late 1950s and early 1960s were a period in their own right: neither the stultifying 'high' Fifties nor the liberating 'high' Sixties, but instead an action-packed, sometimes dramatic time in which the contours of modern Britain started to take shape.Read by Keith Hill. 15 hours 11 minutes. TB 20922.

Lethbridge, Lucy. Servants: a downstairs view of twentieth-century Britain. 2013. TB 20565.An original, authoritative look at the social history of the 20th century, brilliantly retold through the eyes of the household servants.Read by Sally Anne Newton. 12 hours 54 minutes. TB 20565.

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Lewis, Damien. Churchill's secret warriors: the explosive true story of the special forces desperadoes of WWII. 2014. TB21662.In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard. So Britain's wartime leader called for the lightning development of a completely new kind of warfare, recruiting a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become the first 'deniable' secret operatives to strike behind enemy lines, offering these volunteers nothing but the potential for glory and all-but-certain death. Read by Jonathan Oliver. 11 hours 50 minutes. TB21662.

Lovell, Mary S. Bess of Hardwick: first lady of Chatsworth, 1527-1608. 2006. TB 20380.From humble beginnings, Bess of Hardwick accumulated wealth and property through four marriages and became the wealthiest, and therefore the most powerful, woman in England next to Queen Elizabeth. Read by Helen Cashin. 8 hours 41 minutes. TB 20380.

Lowe, Keith. Savage continent: Europe in the aftermath of World War II. 2013. TB21815.The end of the Second World War saw a terrible explosion of violence across Europe. Prisoners murdered jailers. Soldiers visited atrocities on civilians. Resistance fighters killed and pilloried collaborators. Ethnic cleansing, civil war, rape and murder were rife in the days, months and years after hostilities ended. Here is a shocking portrait of an until-now unacknowledged time of lawlessness and terror. Read by Richard Burnip. 17 hours 23 minutes. TB21815.

MacGregor, Neil. A history of the world in 100 objects. 2012. TB 20191.A dramatically original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilisations have left behind them as prisms through which we can explore past worlds and the lives of the men and women who lived in them. Read by Neil MacGregor. 22 hours 9 minutes. TB 20191.

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Mackrell, Judith. Flappers: six women of a dangerous generation. 2013. TB 20761.Starting with the first fashionable acts of rebellion just before the Great War, and continuing through to the end of the decade when the Wall Street crash signal led another cataclysmic world change, Flappers focuses on six women who between them exemplified the range and daring of that generation's spirit.Read by Kate Hambly. 17 hours 14 minutes. TB 20761.

Major, John. My old man: a personal history of music hall. 2013. TB 20474.Former Prime Minister John Major's father entered the British music hall at the age of 21 as a comedian and singer. Major uses his father's story as a springboard for telling the entertaining history of the music hall.Read by John Major. 13 hours 43 minutes. TB 20474.

Maislish, David. Assassination: the royal family's 1,000 year curse: the murder or attempted murder of every king and queen. 2012. TB 21314.An account of how from King Canute to Queen Elizabeth II, more than a quarter of our Kings and Queens were killed - even one in the twentieth century. Read by Bob Rollet. 17 hours 51 minutes. TB 21314.

Mallinson, Allan. 1914: fight the good fight: Britain, the army and the coming of the First World War. 2013. TB 20827.Mallinson explains the grand strategic shift that occurred in the century before the war, the British Army's regeneration after its drubbings in its fight against the Boer and its almost calamitous experience of the first 20 days' fighting in Flanders.Read by Neville Jason. 19 hours 24 minutes. TB 20827.

Marr, Andrew. A history of the world. 2012. TB 20670.The author of two histories of Great Britain turns his attention to the world as a whole and takes readers from the Mayans to

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Mongolia, from the kingdom of Benin to the court of the Jagiellonian kings of Poland.Read by David Timson. 26 hours 30 minutes. TB 20670.

Massie, Robert. Catherine the Great: portrait of a woman. 2012. TB 20273.Catherine was an obscure young German princess who travelled to Russia at 14 and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful and captivating women in history. In this book, this eternally fascinating woman is returned to life. Read by Steve Hodson. 31 hours 4 minutes. TB 20273.

Morris, Richard. Time's anvil: England, archaeology and the imagination. TB 20967.Zig-zagging between prehistoric stone tools and Tudor theatre, "Time's anvil" weaves a series of interconnecting studies of apparently unrelated things and periods that are normally considered only in isolation.2013. Read by Chris Courtney. 18 hours 34 minutes.

Mortimer, Barbara. Sisters. 2013. TB 21177.'Sisters' features over 150 previously unpublished stories of wartime nurses from the archives of the Royal College of Nursing. The vivid, poignant and riveting stories capture these nurses' incredible bravery and touching friendships. Read by Carolyn Bonnyman. 8 hours 48 minutes.

Mortimer, Ian. The time traveller's guide to medieval England: a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century. TB 21239.Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the 14th century. Find out what life was like in medieval England in the most immediate way - from the horrors of leprosy and war to the ridiculous excesses of roasted larks and haute couture.2009. Read by Jonathan Keeble. 11 hours 48 minutes.

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Nicholson, Virginia. Millions like us: women's lives in the Second World War 2012. TB 21184.Drawing on autobiographies, archives and living memory, the stories of pioneering contributions by women to our national experience are told. How women tried to re-make their world in peacetime, how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared. And of how they would never be the same again. Read by Di Langford. 19 hours 28 minutes.

Oliver, Neil. A history of Scotland. 2010. TB 20119.After the Union in 1707, Scotland's increasing reliance on England culminated in a crisis of identity that tortures the country to this day. But how accurate is this version of events? Placing Scotland's story in a wider context, Neil Oliver explodes some of the myths that pervade many accounts of Scottish history. Read by Tom Carter. 17 hours 38 minutes.

Oliver, Neil. Vikings. 2012. TB 20115.Drawing on the latest discoveries that have only recently come to light, Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over 1000 years ago? Read by Crawford Logan. 12 hours 48 minutes.

Paine, Lincoln P. The sea and civilization: a maritime history of the world. 2014. TB21315.A sweeping and illuminating examination of how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, and how goods, languages, religions and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways.Read by Chris Courtney. 32 hours 55 minutes.

Penn, Thomas. Winter king: the dawn of Tudor England. 2011. TB 19435.Thomas Penn tells the story of the transformation of Prince Henry into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. At its heart is Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power. It is the story of the birth of Tudor England.

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Read by Andrew Cullum. 16 hours 31 minutes.

Porter, Linda. Crown of thistles: the fatal inheritance of Mary Queen of Scots 2013. TB 21187. An examination of the ancient and intractable power struggle between England and Scotland. Crown of Thistles is the story of a divided family, of flamboyant kings and queens, cultured courts and tribal hatred, rape and sexual licence on a breath-taking scale, blood feuds and violent deaths. Contains strong language and passages of a sexual nature. Read by Ruth Sillers. 19 hours 46 minutes.

Scott, Jill. Glasgow's Grand Central Hotel: Glasgow's most loved hotel. 2012. TB 19776.This title presents a history of Glasgow's Grand Central Hotel dating from 1883 that chronicles a glamorous, exciting past of celebrity, stars, nostalgia, luxury, glitz, weddings, kitchens and chefs, fancy dresses and ball rooms to stories of its ¹20 million refurbishment by the Principal Hayley Hotel Group. Read by Allan Tall. 4 hours 37 minutes.

Seierstad, Asne. The angel of Grozny: inside Chechnya. 2009. TB 19250.The conflict in Chechnya was the first war that Asne Seierstad covered. Now ten years later, she returns to Chechnya and discovers that although the world's attention has moved on, the tragedy has continued, killing ten to 15 per cent of the population and leaving a brutalised society with a particular toll on its children. Read by Adna Sablyich. 14 hours 9 minutes.

Sixsmith, Martin. Russia: a 1,000-year chronicle of the wild East. 2012. TB 20031.Marking the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of Russia, and its unique place in the modern world. Read by Martin Sixsmith. 11 hours 18 minutes.

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Sweet, Matthew. The West End front: the wartime secrets of London's grand hotels. 2011. TB 19367.The Ritz, the Savoy, the Dorchester and Claridge's - during WWII they teemed with spies and the exiled governments of Europe. Using the memories of first-hand witnesses, the contents of newly declassified government files and a wealth of previously unpublished letters, this book reconstructs a lost world of scandal and intrigue. Contains strong language. Read by Richard Burnip. 13 hours 42 minutes.

Tombs, Robert. The English and their history. 2014. TB21638.A fresh, up-to-date account of the long history of an island and its peoples; of its conquerors, kings and queens; of the social, the political and the cultural; of the mythological and the legendary, and of the extraordinarily true. Read by Leighton Pugh. 47 hours 34 minutes.

Treasure, G R R. The Huguenots. 2013. TB 21199.The rise, survival and fall of the Huguenots from religious practice to power politics and the psychological pressures of living in a threatened 'state within a state'.Read by Chris Courtenay. 22 hours 48 minutes.

Turner, Alwyn W. A classless society: Britain in the 1990s. 2014. TB21366.Opening with a war in the Gulf and ending with the September 11 attacks, this book goes in search of the decade in which modern Britain came of age. Read by John Banks. 25 hours 57 minutes. Weir, Alison. Katherine Swynford: the story of John of Gaunt and his scandalous duchess. 2008. TB21783.An account of one of the greatest and most remarkable love stories of medieval England. Katherine Swynford became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Read by Frances Jeater. 15 hours 44 minutes.

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Weir, Alison. Mary Boleyn: 'the great and infamous whore'. 2011. TB 19365.Mary Boleyn is remembered by posterity as a 'great and infamous whore'. She was the mistress of two kings, Francois I of France and Henry VIII of England, and sister to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. Read by Frances Jeater. 12 hours 57 minutes.

Wenborn, Neil. The French Revolution. 2009. TB19561.In a nutshell series. 'The French Revolution' provides a short and accessible introduction to one of the most important periods in European history. It brings vividly to life the implacable Robespierre, the frightened Marie Antoinette and the iconic image of the guillotine. Read by Roy McMillan. 1 hour 22 minutes.

Winder, Simon. Danubia: a personal history of Habsburg Europe. 2013.TB 20958.For centuries, much of Europe was in the hands of the peculiar Habsburg family. An unstable mixture of wizards, obsessives, melancholics, bores, musicians and warriors, they saw off a number of rivals until finally packing up in 1918.Read by Kris Dyer. 20 hours 11 minutes.

Warfare and Defence

Anderson, Ben. No worse enemy: the inside story of the chaotic struggle for Afghanistan. TB 21117.Filmmaker Ben Anderson shows just how bad the ruinous war in Afghanistan has got. Detailing battles that lasted for days, only to be fought again weeks later, and disturbing incompetence among the Afghan army and police, he raises urgent questions about our recent and current strategies in Afghanistan.2012. Read by John Sackville. 9 hours 18 minutes.

Appy, Christian G. Vietnam: the definitive oral history told from all sides. 2008. TB 19378.'Vietnam' features accounts of 135 men and women that span the history of the Vietnam conflict from its murky origins in the 1940s to

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the chaotic fall of Saigon in 1975. It allows us to see what this war meant to people on various sides - Americans and Vietnamese, generals and guerillas, policy makers and protesters. Contains strong language. Read by Jeff Harding. 28 hours 56 minutes.

Ashcroft, Michael A. Heroes of the skies. 2012. TB 20235.The extraordinary stories behind Lord Ashcroft's collection of British and Commonwealth flying gallantry medals - the largest collection of its kind in the world. It includes the stories of 80 men, mainly airmen and pilots during the First World War and the Second World War. Read by Rob Rollett. 15 hours 23 minutes.

Ballantyne, Iain. Hunter killers: the dramatic untold story of the Royal Navy's most secret service. 2014. TB21632.A hunter killer is a submarine designed to pursue and attack enemy submarines and surface ships using torpedoes. four daring British submarine captains who risked their lives to keep the rest of us safe, their exploits consigned to the shadows until now. Their experiences encompass the span of the Cold War, from voyages in World War II-era submarines under Arctic ice to nuclear-powered espionage missions in Soviet-dominated seas. Read by Jonathan Oliver. 21 hours 33 minutes.

Beevor, Antony. The battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. 2007. TB 19442.'The Battle for Spain' revisits the Spanish Civil War, drawing on masses of material from the Spanish, Russian and German archives. The author's account narrates the origins of the Civil War and its violent course from the coup d'etat in July 1936 through the savage fighting of the next three years. Read by Sean Barrett. 18 hours 50 minutes.

Benson, Harry. Scram! the gripping first-hand account of the helicopter war in the Falklands. 2012. TB 19696.April 2nd 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands. This is the thrilling untold story of the young

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helicopter pilots - most barely out of their teens - who risked their lives during this brief but ferocious war. Read by Robert Portal. 10 hours 36 minutes.

Bungay, Stephen. The most dangerous enemy: a history of the Battle of Britain. 2009. TB21546.An assessment of the battle and its heroes, the development of technologies, planes and their armament. It looks beyond the mythology, to explore all the tragedy and comedy; the brutality and compassion of war.Read by Stephen Bungay. 24 hours 25 minutes.

Caddick-Adams, Peter. Monte Cassino: ten armies in hell. 2013. TB 20552.A clear and comprehensive account of the 5 month campaign to capture the monastery of Monte Cassino during the Second World War. Read by Jonathan Oliver. 14 hours 10 minutes.

Christopher, John. The HMS Victory story. 2010. TB 19705.The story of Britain's most illustrious warship, the HMS Victory. TB 19705.Read by David Thorpe. 1 hour 52 minutes.

Corrigan, Gordon. A great and glorious adventure: a military history of the Hundred Years War. 2014. TB21790.The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance. But despite great victories at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the English could never hope to secure their claims in perpetuity. At its end, however, the English had become English, as opposed to Anglo-French, and France too had set out on the road to nationhood.Read by Peter Crerar. 11 hours 25 minutes.

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David, Saul. 100 days to victory: how the Great War was fought and won. 2013. TB21438.The people and events of the war are brought dramatically to life from young Adolf Hitler's reaction to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, through a Zeppelin raid on Scarborough, the tragic dramas of Gallipoli and the battlefields of the Western Front to the individual bravery of the first Indian VC.Read by Richard Burnip. 19 hours 40 minutes.

Fermor, Patrick Leigh. Abducting a general: the Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete. 2014. TB21645.One of the greatest feats in Patrick Leigh Fermor's remarkable life was the kidnapping of General Kreipe, the German commander in Crete, on 26 April 1944. He and Captain Billy Moss hatched a daring plan to abduct the general, while ensuring that no reprisals were taken against the Cretan population. Read by Chris Courteney. 7 hours 49 minutes.

Hastings, Max. All hell let loose: the world at war, 1939-45. 2012. TB21257.The seminal narrative history of the Second World War from one of our finest historians. A book which depicts what the war was like to live through - whether you were a starving child in Leningrad, a soldier in North Africa, or a civilian in Dresden. Read by Chris Courtenay. 36 hours.

Hastings, Max. The Korean War. 2010. TB 19413.This work draws on first-hand accounts of those who fought on both sides to produce this reassessment of the Korean War. On 25 June 1950, the invasion of South Korea by the communist North launched one of the most devastating conflicts of this century. Contains strong language. Read by David S Cutler. 20 hours 48 minutes.Hastings, Max. Armageddon: the battle for Germany, 1944-45. 2005. TB 19412.One of the greatest military feats during the World War II was the transformation of the German force's activities in the weeks following the battles in Holland and the German border, where the Allies inflicted the greatest catastrophe of modern war on them.

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This is the story of the last eight months of the war. Contains strong language. Read by Richard Burnip. 32 hours 37 minutes.

Huchthausen, Peter A. October fury. 2008. TB 19786.This suspenseful account of the encounter between American naval vessels and Soviet submarines in the waters off Cuba during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 describes how close they came to war. Read by Grover Gardner. 10 hours 49 minutes.

Lambert, Andrew D. The challenge: America, Britain and the war of 1812. 2013. TB21526.In the summer of 1812 Britain stood alone, fighting for her very survival against a vast European Empire. Only the Royal Navy stood between Napoleon's legions and ultimate victory. In that dark hour America saw its chance to challenge British dominance: her troops invaded Canada and American frigates attacked British merchant shipping, the lifeblood of British defence. Read by John Cartwright. 17 hours 14 minutes.

McEntee-Taylor, Carole. Herbert Columbine VC. 2013. TB 20891.'Save yourselves, I'll carry on'. These were the last known words of Herbert Columbine. In Hervilly Woods, France, 9 Squadron Machine Gun Corps had come under intense attack from a heavy force of German infantry. Private Columbine took command of an isolated gun and began firing. Read by Monica Kendall. 7 hours 7 minutes. TB 20891.

McKinstry, Leo. Lancaster: the Second World War's greatest bomber. TB 20562.While addressing the political controversy surrounding the bombing offensive against Germany, McKinstry also weaves individual tales into his narrative. He draws on first-hand accounts from pilots and crew members to bring to life the important characters and events of the Lancaster's career.2010. Read by Geoffrey Drew. 27 hours 1 minute.

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McKinstry, Le. Hurricane: victor of the Battle of Britain. 2011. TB 19630.During the Battle of Britain, the RAF emerged triumphant over the Luftwaffe thanks to two key fighter planes - the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Leo McKinstry tells the story of the Hurricane from its designers to the first-hand testimonies of those brave pilots who flew it. TB 19630.Read by Richard Burnip. 15 hours 8 minutes.

Macintyre, Ben. Double cross: the true story of the D-Day spies. 2012. TB 21238.D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit, aimed at convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong invasion force.Read by Michael Tudor Barnes. 13 hours 49 minutes.

Mallinson, Allan. The making of the British Army. 2011. TB 19429.From the English Civil War to today's War on Terror: in this sweeping account of nearly 500 years of military history, former soldier Allan Mallinson looks at how the Army's dramatic past has made it one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today. Read by Robert Portal. 19 hours 14 minutes.

Mulley, Clare. The spy who loved: the secrets and lives of Christine Granville, Britain's first female special agent of the Second World War. 2012. TB 20150.Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, was the first woman to work for the British as a secret agent during the Second World War, a prototype for the women agents of the SOE, which had yet to be formed. She was one of the most daring female secret agents and this is her story. Read by Jenny Coverack. 15 hours 2 minutes.

Olusoga, David. The world's war. 2014. TB21611.A unique account of the millions of colonial troops who fought in the First World War, and why they were later air-brushed out of

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history. Every major battle fought on the Western Front, from the First Battle of Ypres to the Second Battle of the Marne, was fought by Allied armies that were multi-racial and multi -ethnic. Yet from the moment the guns fell silent the role of non-white soldiers was forgotten and airbrushed out by later historians. Read by Damien Lynch. 16 hours 19 minutes.

Overy, R J. The bombing war: Europe 1939-1945. 2013. TB 21359.The ultimate history of the Blitz and bombing in the Second World War, from the Wolfson Prize-winning historian and author. It is the first book to examine seriously not just the most well-known parts of the campaign, but the significance of bombing on many other fronts – the German use of bombers on the Eastern Front for example (as well as much newly discovered material on the more familiar 'Blitz' on Britain), or the Allied campaigns against Italian cities.Read by Leighton Pugh. 15 hours 52 minutes.

Paxman, Jeremy. Great Britain's Great War. 2013. TB 21372.What was life actually like for the British during the First World War? The images we have all reinforce the idea that it was, in the end, an utterly pointless waste of life, and little more. So why did we fight so willingly and how did we endure it for so long? Read by Roy McMillan and Jeremy Paxman. 9 hours 52 minutes.

Prebble, Stuart. Secrets of the Conqueror: the untold story of Britain's most famous submarine. 2012. TB 20334.HMS Conqueror, 5000 tons of nuclear-powered menace, was Britain's deadliest hunter-killer submarine and many of the secrets of the Conqueror's operations up to and beyond the Falkland Wars are outlined. Read by Martin Reeve. 9 hours 1 minute.

Ryan, Cornelius. A bridge too far. 1974. TB 19300.On 17th September, the mightiest airborne force in history thundered over southern England en route to Arnhem. Cornelius

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Ryan presents an account of the tragic miscalculations at Arnhem resulting in over 17,000 Allied deaths and casualties. Read by Hayward Morse, 20 hours 38 minutes.

Salmon, Andrew. To the last round: the epic British stand on the Imjin River, Korea 1951. 2010. TB 20807.This is the story of the most desperate battle fought by British soldiers since WWII. In three whirlwind nights of battle, one regiment of artillery fired as many shells as were fired at El Alamein. Salmon has interviewed veterans of every unit engaged, to produce an account of the action as they experienced it.Read by Richard Burnip. 20 hours 21 minutes. TB 20807.

Seymour-Jones, Carole. She landed by moonlight: the story of secret agent Pearl Witherington: the real Charlotte Gray. 2014. TB 21405.On the night of the 22nd of September 1943, Pearl Witherington, a 29-year -old British secretary and agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was parachuted from a Halifax bomber into occupied France. Like Sebastian Faulks' heroine, Charlotte Gray, Pearl had a dual mission: in her case, to fight for her beloved, broken France and to find her lost love. Read by Catherine Harvey. 13 hours 24 minutes.

Suvorov, Viktor. The chief culprit: Stalin's grand design to start World War II. 2008. TB21528.This work reveals how Stalin conspired with German leaders to bypass the Versailles Treaty which forbade German rearmament. Stalin emerges as a diabolical genius consumed by visions of a worldwide Communist revolution at any cost, the leader who wooed Hitler and Germany in his own effort to conquer the world.Read by Steve Hodson. 21 hours 31 minutes. TB21528.

Politics and Government

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Aldous, Richard. The lion and the unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli. 2007. TB 19461.Gladstone and Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the modern age. To Disraeli, his antagonist was an 'unprincipled maniac' characterised by an 'extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition'. For Gladstone, his rival was 'The Grand Corrupter' whose destruction he plotted 'day and night, week by week, month by month'. No wonder that when Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass" appeared in 1871, so many readers recognised the great adversaries as the warring lion and unicorn 'fighting for the crown'. Read by Keith Hill. 14 hours 54 minutes.

Campbell, Alastair . The Alastair Campbell diaries: countdown to Iraq. 2012. TB 19950.This is the final volume of Alastair Campbell's diaries, and perhaps the most eagerly awaited given the ground it covers. It begins on September 11, 2001, a day which wrote itself immediately into the history books, and it ends on the day Campbell leaves Downing Street. Contains strong language. Read by Greg Wagland. 38 hours 55 minutes.

Cohen, Nick. You can't read this book: censorship in an age of freedom. 2012. TB 19706.After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism, and the advent of the web which allowed for even the smallest voice to be heard, everywhere you turned you were told that we were living in an age of unparalleled freedom. 'You Can't Read This Book' argues that this view is dangerously naive. Contains strong language. Read by David Thorpe. 11 hours 59 minutes.

Conroy, Paul. Under the wire: Marie Colvin's last assignment. 2013. TB20898.An account of the tragic death of Marie Colvin and a war photographer's harrowing and daring escape from Homs, one of the most dangerous cities on earth.Read by Gavin Crymble. 11 hours 58 minutes. TB20898.

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Duggan, Christopher. Fascist voices: an intimate history of Mussolini's Italy. 2012. TB 20216.Duggan looks into how fascism as a concept became embodied in the person of Mussolini, who came to occupy a semi-divine status, influencing religion and politics to an unprecedented degree, to the extent that his legacy still lingers in Europe today. Read by Jonathan Oliver. 21 hours 7 minutes.

Hurd, Douglas. Disraeli, or, The two lives. 2014. TB21556.A superb politician, orator, writer and wit, Disraeli was the most gifted parliamentarian of his time, who rose to become Prime Minister - twice. Yet he had never intended to be a politician: his early life was led in pursuit of pleasure as he struggled to find an occupation that would best suit his energy, keen intelligence, wit and insatiable appetite for public attention. Read by Steve Hodson. 13 hours 52 minutes.

Mullin, Chris. A view from the foothills: the diaries of Chris Mullin. 2010. TB 19635.Alan Clarke meets 'Yes Minister' in this wry and self-deprecating diary about life in the New Labour government from 1999 to May 2005. Read by Keith Hill. 20 hours 10 minutes.

Jukes, Peter. The fall of the house of Murdoch: fourteen days that ended a media dynasty. 2012. TB 20098.From the moment the News of the World's hacking of the phone of a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl was exposed in 2011, it took just 14 days for the world's bestselling English-language newspaper to close down and one of the most powerful families in the world to be forced to appear before Parliament. TB 20098.Read by David Bale. 18 hours 35 minutes.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The prince. 2011. TB 21156.The Prince is a treatise that systematically charts the best strategies for successful governing. But it can also be read as the work of a secret republican subtly undermining the despotism of the ruling Medici family.

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Read by Nigel Carrington. 3 hours 15 minutes. TB 21156.

Moore, Charles. Margaret Thatcher: the authorized biography. 2013. TB 20573.The first volume of a meticulously researched biography of the longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th century and one of the most influential political figures of the postwar era. This volume ends with the Falklands Dinner in Downing Street in November 1982. Read by Keith Hill. 36 hours 34 minutes. TB 20573.

Powell, Jonathan. Great hatred, little room: making peace in Northern Ireland. 2008. TB 19530.'Great Hatred, Little Room' tells the inside story of how the Northern Ireland peace talks almost came to collapse and how the parties finally, thankfully, reached a deal. Read by Steve Hodson. 16 hours 37 minutes.

Robinson, Nick. Live from Downing Street. 2013. TB 20134.An absorbing journey through the hard-fought battles for the right to tell the public about the decisions taken on their behalf by Politicians.Read by Simon Shepherd. 15 hours 24 minutes. TB 20134.

Short, Philip. Mitterrand: a study in ambiguity. 2013. TB 21056.Francois Mitterrand was, as a statesman and as a human being, the incarnation of the mercurial, contrarian France which Britain and America find so perennially frustrating. This is a human as much as a political biography, and a captivating portrait of a life that mirrored the times.Read by Robin Houston. 29 hours 17 minutes.

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