Books & Music

Edward the Confessor was the son of King Aethelred the Unready of the House of Wessex. The family was exiled to Normandy when the Danish invaded England in 1013 but, with the nation in crisis on the death of King Harthacnut twenty-nine years later,...

Who made modern Britain the country it is today? How do we sum up the kind of people we are? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? In this wonderfully told history, spanning back to when Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953, Andrew Marr traces...

Sunday Times bestselling novelist Alison Weir returns with the spellbinding story of Mary I. A DESTINY REWRITTEN. A ROYAL HEART DIVIDED. Adored only child of Henry VIII and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour...

In our increasingly secular world, holy texts are at best seen as irrelevant, and at worst as an excuse to incite violence, hatred and division. The Quran, the Torah and the Bible are often employed selectively to underwrite arbitrary and subjective...

This brilliant new book explores the lives of eight generations of the greatest kings and queens that this country has ever seen, and the worst. The Plantagenets  – their story is the story of Britain. England’s greatest royal...

Journalism has the vital function to defend and promote truth in public discourse. And yet the news media has never been under so much pressure to move away from this critical role into more partial campaigns or commercial public relations. Here four of...

The Power of Politicians is an account of Tessa Jowell’s experience of entering politics and making effective sense of her role. Here, with Frances D’Souza, she gives fascinating insights into the workings of Parliament, the successful development of...

In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who...

In the seventy years before he became king, there was time for Charles Philip Arthur George to pursue his interests and develop his opinions, whether on sport, music, the arts, architecture, farming, gardening or conservation. Having taken on a new role,...

A captivating and wildly entertaining tour of London, unearthing the capital's secrets and commemorating its rich, colourful and unusual history. Brimming with tales of London's forgotten past, its strangest traditions and its most eccentric...

In April 1956, C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, married Joy Davidman, an American poet with two small children. After four intensely happy years, Davidman died of cancer and Lewis found himself alone again, and inconsolable. In response,...

Gorgeous, strange and magical, A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in...