Titles in this preview are published in September
Anthony Delaney Queer Georgians: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers and Homemakers
Doubleday, 4th, £22, HB, 9781529927689
Based on original archival research by the presenter of History Hit podcast, After Dark, this enjoyable work of history traces the stories of people who dared to challenge society’s expectations three centuries ago, revealing the tragedies and joys of queer life during a period scarcely documented elsewhere.
Eleanor Doughty Heirs and Graces: A History of the British Aristocracy
Hutchinson Heinemann, 4th, £30, H, 9781529153040
Doughty has written the Great Estates column in the Daily Telegraph since 2017. Now she draws on her “unparalleled access to a bewildering range of dukes, duchesses, earls and others” to tell the inside story of the British aristocracy since the Second World War.
Elizabeth Drayson Crucible of Light: Islam and the Forging
of Europe from the 8th to the 21st Century Picador, 25th, £30, HB, 9781035008599
This “revisionist and wide-ranging” account of the centuries-old relationship between Islam and Europe sweeps across cities and continents in a narrative shaped by many parallel histories in war and in peace. Drayson shows that the history of Europe has always been both Christian and Muslim.
Simon Elliott The African Emperor: The Life of Septimius Severus Icon, 11th, £25, 9781837731725 This portrait of Rome’s Black emperor who was born in Leptis Magna and died in York portrays him as a giant of a leader who was in power at the height of Rome’s might and led the largest army ever to campaign in Britain.
Malcolm Gaskill The Glass Mountain: Escape and Discovery in Wartime Italy
Allen Lane, 25th, £25, HB, 9780241622599
“What he really did in the war was even more extraordinary than the exaggerations of
family myth.” The author of the excellent The Ruin of All Witches returns to tell the “gripping, vividly told” story of his Uncle Ralph’s past as a soldier, prisoner, fugitive and partisan in Italy during the Second World War. It is a book “that goes to the heart of how we think about the people who came before us” . I’m enthralled by what I have read so far.
Stephen Greenblatt Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and the Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival, Christopher Marlowe
Bodley Head, 11th, £25, HB, 9781847927132
Telling the story of an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry, this is the “thrilling story of the daring and subversive” life of Christopher Marlowe, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Will in the World.
Christopher Harding A Short History of Japan Pelican, 4th, £20, HB, 9780241563199
Exploring how a distinctly Japanese society and
culture was forged, this “brief and thrilling” introduction to Japan is billed as an invaluable guide for visitors, “stimulating and surprising whether for first-time or seasoned travellers”.
Andrew Hussey Fractured France: A Journey Through a Divided Nation
Granta, 11th, £25, HB, 9781783786602
Speaking to commentators, writers (including Édouard Louis) and politicians as well as locals, the author of Paris: The Secret History travels across France to trace the social, political and economic fault-lines that are shaping the French nation today. What he discovers is both revelatory and depressing, but still a must-read for anyone who loves France as I do.
Miranda Kaufmann Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery
Oneworld, 4th, £25, HB, 9780861548019
Kaufmann’s Black Tudors received a lot of attention when it came out in 2018. Exposing
the hidden ways in which slave-produced wealth poured into Britain, she now tells the story of the Caribbean Marriage Trade and the heiresses whose fortunes attracted the attention of fortune- hunters who enabled them to marry into the top tiers of the aristocracy.
Ross King The Shortest History of Ancient Rome
Old Street, 9th, £14.99, HB, 9781913083830
From the foundation myth of Romulus and Remus to the Barbarian invasions, a history of Rome told through its peoples, including murderous emperors, rebellious women, fugitive slaves and persecuted Christians.
Lee Lawrence The Colour of Injustice Abacus, 25th, £22, HB, 9780349146706
The social entrepreneur author of 2020 Costa Biography Award-winner, The Louder I Will Sing, returns with a powerful call to re-examine Britain’s relationship with justice. Lawrence draws on his own experience and other instances of
Now available in paperback...
Byron
A Life in Ten Letters 9781009599412 | £17.99
To Run The World The Kremlin’s Cold War
Bid for Global Power 9781108708593 | £19.99
cambridge.org/highlights 6402.indd 1 06/05/2025 13:59 17
History in Flames
The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts 9781009457132 | £14.99
Books New Titles: Non-Fiction
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