With specially commissioned images and text by renowned photographer Derry Brabbs, this illuminating guidebook is informed by an abundant history, extending from the medieval to the modern day. And while the Great Fire of London and the Blitz destroyed many of London’s oldest churches, they were restored or rebuilt each time, offering a fascinating, meandering history.

This gloriously illustrated compendium features architectural designs from Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, James Gibbs, William Butterfield, Edwin Lutyens and many others. From the iconic St Bartholomew the Great and Christ Church Spitalfields to lesser-known gems like St Mary Woolnoth and St. Jude’s in Hampstead Garden Suburb, striking photography portrays the spectacular beauty of each church, with its rich history discussed in detail.

This guide explores how these sacred buildings are intrinsically linked to this historic city’s identity – covering everything from devastation and plague to arts and literature; religion and politics to infrastructure and skylines. Whether you’re a history buff, an architecture enthusiast, or just someone looking to discover the spiritual heart of London, this book is for you.

Renate was born in 1941, the daughter of an unknown SS General and Nazi war criminal who fathered her as part of his racial duty to produce 'A Child for Hitler.' Joe was born in 1946 in a Displaced Persons camp for Holocaust survivors. Dan was born in Haifa in 1938 to German Jewish immigrant parents. Then it was Palestine, later Israel, and Dan was a proud Israeli, until he wasn't so sure any more. All three grew up surrounded by silence and secrets, because their parents wanted to protect them from the horrors of the dark Nazi past which had devastated their lives.

Decades later the three met, each trying to come to terms with their legacies of silence, secrets and pain. In Children of the Third Reich, acclaimed historian Catrine Clay traces their stories from Germany to the United States and Israel, confronting their dark pasts in order to find ways to a better future.

WINNER OF THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE'S RUNCIMAN AWARD 2026

Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize

‘Magical… A book that will refresh your soul.’ Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm

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THE TRUE STORY OF A COURAGEOUS LEAP INTO A NEW LIFE (moved this to be top of descript)

In 2000, burnt out by city living, Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia took a bold step: they left everything behind and moved to Prespa in northern Greece – a remote landscape of vast lakes, snow-capped mountains and stone villages.

Here, their seasons are punctuated by unforgettable encounters, including nesting summer pelicans, a springtime stare-down with a bear and a winter meeting with fourteen tiny birds above a frozen doorway.

Lifelines is a story of new beginnings – of searching for home in an unfamiliar place, finding community across borders and truly finding your place in the world.

‘I was enthralled and won't be the only reader making travel plans.’ Gaia Vince

• AN FT BEST SUMMER BOOK
• An inspiring read about moving abroad and starting life again.
• Set amongst the beautiful Greek landscape.
• Full of soul-warming encounters with the natural world.
• The perfect summer read to take on holiday, an ideal non-fiction beach book.

‘An inspiring call to throw caution to the wind … Lifelines is not just beautiful, it is quite literally encouraging. It will make you brave.’ Observer

‘This remarkable book describes Julian and Julia's odyssey as they meet others on similar quests to find home, be they bears, pelicans or humans.’ Lee Durrell, MBE

Focusing on major turning points, individual stories, and key places, from Mecca to Cordoba, from Damascus to Venice, and from Vienna to Istanbul, Drayson tracks the themes that unite us – classical learning preserved in Islamic libraries, the enduring influence of Moorish architecture and design, the food we share, the goods we have traded, and the continuing dialogue between individuals and cultures that has permeated Europe’s history and shaped its borders.

It is a history that sweeps across cities and continents, from Spanish patios and palaces to Ottoman-inspired coffee houses in seventeenth-century London to the Mezquita in Cordoba, once a mosque, now a cathedral, the physical embodiment of the ongoing discourse that continues to shape European identity.

‘Absolutely fascinating. At a time when a historical Christian Nationalism and chauvinism are gaining ground, this book arrives as an essential corrective’ Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK and author of Secularism: a Very Short Introduction

‘A treasure of a book, exploring the frequently misunderstood, often unsung, yet extraordinarily rich intertwining of Islamic and European culture over nearly one and a half millennia’ Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred

Heroes have flaws, but their stories stir the soul. In Gimson's Heroes, bestselling author Andrew Gimson traces the lives of fifty astonishing individuals who had the courage to defy conventional wisdom.

From Horatio Nelson disobeying orders to Lord Byron scandalising polite society; Grace Darling rowing through a deadly storm to Florence Nightingale teaching the British how to nurse – these icons are no mere monuments of history, but living, breathing people of daring and defiance. Here are stories of resolve and sacrifice: Wallace Hartley plays on as the Titanic goes down, Noor Inayat Khan refuses to flee from occupied France, Stan Hollis storms an enemy pillbox and Nelson Mandela brings down the white regime in South Africa.

A hero, Gimson concludes, is someone with the courage, originality and genius to see what must be done – and to dare to do it, no matter the cost. Complemented by Martin Rowson's uniquely charming illustrations, Gimson's Heroes is a witty, fascinating and lively celebration of the extraordinary legacies of those who went further than most would ever dream.

The fifty Heroes included in the book are:

Boudicca c.25-60/61 AD
Alfred the Great 848-899
King Harold c.1022-1066
Robert the Bruce 1274-1329
Julian of Norwich 1342-1416
Owain Glyndwr c.1359 – c.1415
Bess of Hardwick c.1522 or 1527-1608
Queen Elizabeth I 1533-1603
Sir Francis Drake 1540-1596
Sir Walter Raleigh 1552-1618
Sir Philip Sidney 1554-1586
William Shakespeare 1564-1616
George Herbert 1593-1633
Gerrard Winstanley 1609-1676
Prince Rupert of the Rhine 1619-1682
Robert Boyle 1627-1691
Thomas Coram 1668-1751
Samuel Johnson 1709-1784
James Wolfe 1727-1759
Edmund Burke 1729-1797
James Boswell 1740-1795
Thomas Telford 1757-1834
Horatio Nelson 1758-1805
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797
Thomas Clarkson 1760-1846
Jane Austen 1775-1817
Elizabeth Fry 1780-1845
George Stephenson 1781-1848
Lord Byron 1788-1824
Lord Shaftesbury 1801-1885
Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881
Isambard Kingdom Brunel 1806-1859
Charles Dickens 1812-1870
David Livingstone 1813-1873
Grace Darling 1815-1842
Prince Albert 1819-1861
Florence Nightingale 1820-1910
Octavia Hill 1838-1912
Fred Burnaby 1842-1885
Ernest Shackleton 1874-1922
Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965
Wallace Hartley 1878-1912
Ernest Bevin 1881-1951
The Unknown Warrior died c. 1914
John Betjeman 1906-1984
Stan Hollis 1912-1972
Michael Wharton 1913-2006
Noor Inayat Khan 1914-1944
Prince Alexander Obolensky 1916-1940
Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

Praise for the three previous Gimson books:

Gimson's Kings & Queens: Brief Lives of the Monarchs since 1066
'The most entertaining and instructive book on the English monarchy you will ever read' Daily Telegraph

Gimson's Prime Ministers: Brief Lives from Walpole to Johnson
'The best general book on British politics I've ever come across. Learned, witty and wise, and splendidly illustrated by Martin Rowson' Tibor Fischer, Guardian

Gimson's Presidents: Brief Lives from Washington to Trump
'This is history at its liveliest and most enjoyable. Most presidential biographies are abominably long-winded and reverential. With miniaturist wit and precision, Gimson manages to compress all the salient facts about each president into five or six pages, while offering beautifully crafted insights into their characters and temperaments …There is something fascinating or funny on every page' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

For a million years people have been travelling throughout Europe, from the mysterious homo antecessor who left his footprints on the coast of England to travellers on the motorways of today. Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the prints of a hunter or his prey.

And yet the long, nation-spanning roads of Europe don't hold a special place in the imaginations and identities of its residents. No classic songs have been written about the E8, the way Americans have written about Route 66. Are Europeans too attached to their own home patch? Or have they too often seen armies marching towards them along those roads?

Eager to answer that question, Mathijs Deen goes in search of the warriors, refugees, bandits, pilgrims, fortune-seekers, conquerors and racers who advanced into history along the roads of Europe. From Boekelo in the Netherlands to Smolensk on the Dnieper, and from the first prehistoric Europeans to the barons who raced the open roads of Europe in the early 20th century, Down Old Roads is both a journey through Europe and a trip through time.

“It's easy to be swept away by Deen's delightful prose” New Statesman on The Boundless River

Translated from the Dutch by Jane Hedley-Prole and Jonathan Reeder

Venture behind closed doors to uncover the secrets of life in the interwar country house…

During the 1920s and 1930s, as the sun set slowly on the British Empire, England's stately homes concealed worlds both opulent and ordinary, noble and viscious. This was a realm draped in myth, hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles.

Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, on unpublished letters and diaries, on the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls, unhappy heiresses and bullying butlers, The Long Weekend reveals how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs, and how the reality was so much more interesting than the dream.

'A perfect piece of escapism' Guardian

‘Elegant, encyclopaedic and entertaining’ The Times

'Wonderful' Judith Flanders

'A whirling, waltzing panorama through the last carefree age of British nobility’ New Statesman

Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors on the excess, intrigue and absurdities of life in the late Victorian and Edwardian country house

In the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. This was a time when the ancestral seats of ancient nobility stood side by side with the fabulous palaces of Jewish bankers and Indian princes, when dukes and duchesses mixed with self-made millionaires and society hostesses who had learned to dance in the chorus line.

Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors to the country house during this glittering golden age, when – for the privileged few – life in the country house was the best life of all.

'Fascinating' TLS

'Illuminating' Literary Review

'The range and scope of his book is breathtaking' Country Life

With stunning full-colour images