An Anzac veteran, Sydney Loch (1888–1955) and his wife Joyce settled in Thessalonika, in the last village where women were allowed before the wall of the male-only Athos peninsula. Drawing on 25 years of living there and exploring the Holy Mountain, this is Loch’s account of the autonomous region inhabited only by Orthodox monks, living in monasteries on the flanks of the mountain and keeping Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset. First published in 1957. Small print

Though never a soldier himself, Kipling wrote extensively about war. This selection of his journalism, fiction and verse ranges from Egypt and India to Sudan and South Africa. Featuring his eye-witness reports from the Boer War, his commentary on the First World War, and celebrated poems such as ‘Tommy’, ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘Recessional’, it reflects both his sympathy for the lot of the common soldier and his opinion of high command.

Marcel Krueger’s grandmother, Cäcilie Barabasch was from a farming family in what is now Poland but was then East Prussia. In the severe cold of January 1945, aged around 20, Cäcilie was ‘mobilized’ and taken by the Red Army to the Soviet labour camps in the Urals, where she remained for five years before returning to Germany. Marcel Krueger tells her story and his own, as he retraces her journey by road and rail across today’s Poland and Russia.

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) often travelled by sea and he had a keen interest in all things nautical. This selection of his letters, journalism, books and poems ranges from a brief account of his first journey from Bombay to England in 1871 to correspondence with Sir Percy Bates, Chairman of Cunard, in the 1930s, and illustrates Kipling’s impressive maritime knowledge and his deep respect for the ocean.

Who were the Magi and why did they travel so far to worship the infant Christ? Did Marco Polo really see their tomb in a ‘castle of fire-worshippers’? Combining theology and travel writing, Roberts describes the vicissitudes of his own journey across the Middle East as he retraces the wise men’s route, from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and uncovers the different ancient traditions about the Magi and the Nativity story.

A member of the Ramblers Association as well as the Jane Austen Society, Anne-Marie Edwards is an ideal guide to the landscapes Jane Austen would have known. The 15 walks she describes, with maps showing footpaths and bridleways, visit the ‘originals’ of locations in the novels, such as Godmersham House, the Pemberley of Pride and Prejudice; the Bath Assembly Rooms; and the Cobb and ‘Granny’s Teeth’ at Lyme Regis, which feature in Persuasion.

Aged just 21 when he conquered Constantinople in 1453, Mehmet II was known to Europe as a brutal tyrant, whose advancing Ottoman empire, reaching across Asia Minor to Hungary and Italy, led three Popes to call for Crusades. He was 'the present Terrour of the World', but as John Freely’s biography reveals, Mehmet’s court was filled with poets, astronomers, scholars and artists, and his military conquests brought Greco-Islamic science to the West at the dawn of the Renaissance. Slightly off-mint.

This anthology presents a highly readable selection of extracts from a wide range of female sources, usefully grouped by theme. Topics naturally include motherhood, marriage and domestic life, but here is also commentary on religion, politics, work and education by contributors from all walks of life. These are the authentic voices of British women's experience (and the occasional man's), from the close of the 18th century to the outbreak of the First World War. No jacket.

Struggling to write a novel set in South America, John Hopkins decided to revisit the continent, travelling slowly by train, bus and river boat from Mexico City to Argentina, via Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, savouring every experience along the way. The diary he kept is a vivid, sultry portrait of Latin America, a tequila-soaked chronicle of boredom, solitude and writer’s block, and an angst-ridden account of his troubled love for his travelling companion Madeleine.

Hilde F Johnson, the former UN Special Representative in South Sudan, provides an insider’s account of the years following the country’s declaration of independence in July 2011. From her vantage point in Juba, Johnson witnessed how the seeds of conflict were sown and the rapid escalation of violence into what Desmond Tutu describes in his foreword as ‘an atrocious and senseless civil war’. This in-depth study of the new nation attempts to answer the question: why?

After a brief history of the ‘Viking Age’, which saw the movement of peoples from Scandinavia to the British Isles, Eleanor Parker turns to medieval chronicles and legends about the Vikings or ‘Danes’. Although the medieval narratives often portray the Scandinavians as raiders whose purpose was plunder and destruction, Parker’s close study of the stories reveals other motives – including participation in English politics and the need to settle – and she traces the positive Viking contribution to culture and identity in England.

China is rapidly becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and its leader, Xi Jingping, is enshrined in its constitution – an honour not seen since Chairman Mao. This succinct, accessible primer charts his rise to power and explains his world-view, his plans to eradicate poverty and extend his country’s global reach, his thoughts on China’s Communist legacy – and how far he is prepared to go to defend it.

In 1925, Barry Dierks, a young American architect, and his lover Eric Sawyer bought land at Miramar on the Côte d’Azur and built Le Trident, their home and a spectacular showcase for Barry’s architecture. A year later, Somerset Maugham’s La Mauresque became the first of some 70 houses designed by Dierks for the Riviera’s rich and famous. This biography of Barry and Eric also tells of the glamorous inhabitants of the villas and the lifestyle of Jazz Age Côte d’Azur.

From the birth of science in 6th-century BCE Miletus, Asia Minor, this history follows the development and transmission of ancient Greek scientific ideas through Aristotle and Archimedes, and the Islamic world, to their revival during the Renaissance in Europe.

Francis Young, himself at the forefront of the search to locate the lost coffin of King Edmund, tells the story of the historical search for the real man behind the legendary East Anglian king killed by the Vikings in 869. The book traces Edmund’s progress from martyred king to England’s national saint in medieval times; and describes current research into Edmund’s burial in the abbey at Bury St Edmunds and the present whereabouts of his mortal remains.

Italy's surrender in September 1943 opened the opportunity for the Allies to take control of strategically important Greek islands. The British moved to strengthen the Italian garrison on Leros, only to lose it in one of the last significant Allied defeats of the war. Drawing on first-hand accounts, this book tells the story of the siege and battle, the daring escapes from the German invaders and the years of incarceration for those captured.

As a dictator who came to power before the Second World War and outlasted his allies Hitler and Mussolini by decades, Francisco Franco is central to 20th-century European history, and his ghost still haunts modern Spain. This biography examines the man, the dictator, and the Spain he forged, charting a childhood scarred by his country’s humiliating defeat in the Spanish-American War, and analysing an ideology based on nationalism, military discipline and the Catholic church.

In a tribute to a golden age, Drazin looks afresh at 18 of the film industry's most significant personalities from the 1940s, among them, David Lean, Michael Balcon, Humphrey Jennings and Cavalcanti.

Robert Beaken's biography presents a sympathetic portrait of Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (1928 to 1941), and reveals his precise role in the abdication of Edward VIII. Slightly off-mint.

Adele Smith's history celebrates the first 100 years of the society founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 and dedicated to 'supporting the Commonwealth through its own social, music, arts and welfare activities'. Foreword by HM the Queen.

Drawing on a wealth of scholarly research and firsthand source material, this is a comprehensive survey of the modern religious world. Encompassing traditional faiths, indigenous religions and new religious movements, the book focuses on the historical development and teachings of each religion and examines how these traditions have evolved into contemporary beliefs and practices. This revised and updated edition also explores new approaches to spirituality, the spread of religious pluralism and the movement towards interfaith dialogue.

After taking over the family rubber business, Edouard Michelin's striking innovation, in 1891, was a removable pneumatic bicycle tyre. This idea, together with brother André's marketing genius, was the foundation of a phenomenal rise in the company's fortunes. This highly readable history tells the story of how the two brothers' groundbreaking efforts built a global empire and helped to create a tourist industry around motoring with their famous Michelin guides and maps. Off-mint.

In 1809, at the height of the struggle against Napoleon, Britain's Secretary of State for War, Lord Castlereagh, challenged the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, to a duel. The two men met on Putney Heath, and Canning was wounded in the thigh. Drawing on previously overlooked private papers, this detailed history examines the poisonous rivalry that led two eminent statesmen to risk their lives in the midst of a national emergency, and traces the far-reaching consequences of this bizarre incident.

As the First World War ground to a close, Ireland's guerilla struggle against British rule escalated into full-scale conflict. British and American correspondents, including G K Chesterton and V S Pritchett, flocked to report the fighting, and were shocked by the methods used by the Black and Tans to suppress the uprising. This ground-breaking study examines the crucial role of the press in the battle for hearts and minds that led to the establishment of the Irish Free State. Slightly off-mint.

From Abdul Rahman (1903–90) to Zulu, this A–Z of more than 400 entries, each with a brief bibliography, offers 'a compendium of all things British Imperial', from the Empire's origins to around 1980.

Luke Pitcher's very accessible study of 'ancient history-writing in action', merges two approaches of modern historiography: that concerned with reliability and sources; and that focussed on works of history as literary productions. No jacket.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Sir William Hamilton was George III's ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples and his letters to the English court, 1798 to 1799, provide a vivid, day-by-day account of European events.