Historical, Political and Military Biography books

Two months before the outbreak of WWII, 17-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF. Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat immediately, Wellum finds himself caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s.

5 stars

The author and her family fled the horrors of Nazi occupation by hiding in the back of a warehouse in Amsterdam for two years with another family and a German dentist. Aged thirteen when she went into the secret annexe, she kept a diary.

Minksy, Gladys, Beatty, Joan, Girl Walker. While the men were at war, these women ruled the streets of the East End. Brought up with firm hand in the steaming slums and teeming tenements, they struggled against poverty to survive, and fought for their community in our country's darkest hours....

This enchanting collection brings together hundreds of Winston Churchill's wittiest remarks, as a record of all that was best about this endearing, conceited, talented and wildly funny Englishman.

With the help of surviving relatives and hundreds of previously unknown family photographs, Derek Niemann uncovers the true story of what his grandfather Karl really did. A Nazi in the Family is an illuminating portrayal of how ordinary people can fall into the service of a monstrous regime.

Presents the biography of Napoleon who lived one of the extraordinary of all human lives. This book shows how after seizing power in a coup d'etat he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the Revolution had descended.

'Malala is an inspiration to girls and women all over the world.' - J.K. Rowling Written by Malala in collaboration with critically acclaimed author, Patricia McCormick, this children's edition tells the remarkable story of a girl who knew from a young age that she wanted to change the world - and did.

This book recounts the horror of World War II on the eastern front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier.

The first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years is the most complete telling of his life and times to date.

Published to coincide with the 1100th anniversary of the death of AEthelflaed, who ruled over the ancient kingdom of Mercia (English Midlands). The book examines her important place in history as the only woman who ruled one of the major powers of Dark Age Britain.

Written during the Second World War, Zweig's typically passionate and readable biography of Michel de Montaigne, is also a heartfelt argument for the importance of intellectual freedom, tolerance and humanism. Zweig draws strong parallels between Montaigne's age, when Europe was torn in two by conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his own, in which the twin fanaticisms of Fascism and...

Examines the women in Donald Trump's life, including his German-immigrant grandmother, Scottish-immigrant mother, his two ex-wives, his current wife, and his eldest daughter.

When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Hungarian Jew and a medical doctor, Dr Miklos Nyiszli was spared from death for a grimmer fate: to perform scientific research on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the infamous Angel of Death: Dr Josef Mengele.

The story of Gertrude Bell; archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, mountaineer and nation builder.

Stefan Zweig's classic biography of one of British history's most fascinating figures, rereleased in a new edition to tie in with launch of the major new Hollywood film, Mary Queen of Scots....

Spitfire Pilot was written in 1940 in the heat of battle when the RAF stood alone against the might of Hitler's Third Reich. It is a tremendous personal account of one of the fiercest and most idealised air conflicts, The Battle of Britain, seen through the eyes of a pilot of the famous 609 Squadron.

A long-overdue and dramatic reinterpretation of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots by one of the leading historians at work today.

A New York Times Bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!...

A unique and important look at the death of Queen Victoria, from her final days through to the state funeral, using first-hand accounts from those who were there at the time.

Winner of the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2014 A rich historical biography of `those wild Wyndhams' - three cultured aristocratic sisters born into great privilege in late Victorian Britain.