Get Lost in History: Fact & Fiction

Kill the pretender. Do not let it be known that there was a pretender to kill.

The year is 1483 and England is in peril. The much-despised Richard III is not long for the throne, and the man who will become Henry VII stands poised to snatch the crown for himself. But for twelve-year-old John Collan, living in a remote village with his widowed father, these matters seem far away.

But history has other plans for John.

Stolen from his family, exiled – first to Oxford, then to Burgundy, and then Ireland – and apprenticed to a series of unscrupulous political operators, he finds himself groomed for power; not as John Collan, but as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick – and rightful heir to the throne.

Far from home at the Irish court, preparing for a war that will see him become king or die trying, John has just his wits – and the slippery counsel of his host’s daughter, the unconventional Joan – to navigate the choppy waters ahead.

Seething with revenge and machination, sparkling with wit and humanity, and roaring with adventure and bravado, The Pretender is the captivating true story of a young man tossed into the chaos of history as it happens.

Poland, 1942. After witnessing the destruction of her hometown in Warsaw, Anna Kowalski joins the Polish Resistance. She is tasked with smuggling as many children as possible out of the Warsaw Ghetto through the sewers and relocating them to safety.

Through her work, Anna meets Johnnie Nowak, an RAF pilot who had managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp. He’s not safe in Warsaw, so Anna leads him out of the city to protect him…

But suddenly Anna is caught by the SS and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she is surrounded by even more horror and despair. A female guard, known as The Beast, is renowned for her violence and aggression towards her prisoners, and she’s set her sights on Anna.

When Anna is relocated to a different camp, she finds herself reunited with Johnnie Nowak, the pilot she had saved. Desperate to escape, the two of them devise a plan that, if caught, could mean a fate far worse than death.

Will Anna and Johnnie finally find freedom, and survive the war together?

Inspired by true stories of WWII, don’t miss this emotional and poignant historical novel debut of courage against all odds, perfect for fans of Anna Stuart and Soraya M Lane.

Under what was left of the roof of the ruined cottage, a girl with pigtails perched on a pile of rubble, hunched over a book…

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson leaves the New York Public Library for the American Committee for Devastated France. Joining the women rebuilding French communities, Jessie strives to establish something new – children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.

1987: Librarian Wendy Peterson stumbles across a reference to Jessie Carson in the archives. Consumed by her story, Wendy learns that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than the NYPL. Wendy’s obsession leads to their paths converging in surprising ways across time.

An intimate look into the life of a legendary mythical villain who has so often been stripped of her voice and humanity in this debut novel, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe and the works of Jennifer Saint.

You know how Medusa’s story ends, but you’ve never heard her tell her own story… until now.

The only mortal daughter of two sea gods, and a priestess of Athena, Medusa was a woman who thought she had found her place in the world. But when Medusa suffers a horrific violation at the hands of Poseidon, Athena is outraged over the desecration of her name and sends a message by transforming Medusa into the snake-haired monster of legend. With one look, any who meet her gaze is turned to stone. Word of her monstrosity travels fast, igniting a king’s fear so greatly that he commands the boy-hero Perseus to bring him her head. With a power that will spare no one, Medusa begins to wonder if this is a blessing or a curse. Medusa only knows that she must leave the city she has come to call home before she harms another soul.

Searching for a haven free from mortals, anger buoying her every step, Medusa journeys across ancient Greece. Her eyes are hidden beneath a blindfold, with nothing but the snakes for company. Through her travels, Medusa discovers solace and understanding in the mythical figures she stumbles upon: A debaucherous wine god, an alluring nymph, and a three-headed dog. But one cannot escape fate forever. As Perseus closes in, Medusa faces a choice: become the monster everyone expects her to be, or cling to the last piece of her humanity.

Two women, a mysterious map, and a family secret spanning hundreds of years … A stunning art history thriller set around the life, times, and feuds of the artist Peter Paul Rubens.

Innocence and delight, guile and misapprehension, the hint of indifference, even disdain on her pretty features. Fickle, he called her, a mixture of surprise and confidence. She is all that and more, brought to life with the ink strokes of a genius.

Spanish Netherlands, 1620s: raised by her father Lucas to know her mind, Antonia Vorsterman sees everything that goes on in her world – all the rivalries and jealousies that course through the artists’ studios and workshops of Antwerp.

Drawn into the lively household of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, whose work her father engraves for a living, Antonia begins to see a life of colour and possibility for herself – until Lucas entrusts her with a terrible secret that will alter the course of their family’s future.

Belgium, present day: haunted by the recent loss of her mother, art historian Charlotte Hubert moves to Antwerp to research her hero, the Baroque master Rubens, and to seek answers about the father she’s never met.

But a startling discovery hidden inside an ancient map folio turns Charlotte’s quiet academic life into a dangerous hunt for long-lost treasures, missing for 400 years. In the shadowy cloisters of the university, where ambition, obsession and violence run deep, nothing is as it seems.

Charlotte is certain of one thing – no one can be trusted.

Centuries apart, Charlotte’s and Antonia’s lives intertwine as they unearth long-buried secrets about a master and his engraver where theft, betrayal and the fallout of family loyalty run rampant.

What do you do when the weight of betrayal grows too heavy to bear?

Trailblazer, superstar, activist, and spy: Alice Marble is a true American icon.

Alice strives to have it all.

At seventeen, Alice Marble has no formal tennis skills and no coach. What she does have is an ability to hit the ball as hard as she can and a strong desire to prove herself. With steadfast determination and one sacrifice after another, Alice plays her heart out on the courts of the rich and famous, at national tournaments, and—the greatest of them all—at Wimbledon, rising to be one of the top-ranked players in the world.

But then her world falls apart.

With the outbreak of war with Germany, Alice’s tennis career and life come to a screeching halt, and for the first time, she is forced to confront who she is without tennis. As she seeks to understand her new place in the world and how she can aid in the war efforts, a telegram arrives with devastating news from overseas. Heartbroken and lost, she feels like she can only watch as the war wreaks havoc in every area of her life.

Until an unexpected invitation arrives.

Alice is given the chance to fight back when the US Army sends her a request: Under the guise of playing in tennis exhibition games in Switzerland, she would be a spy for them. Alice aches for nothing more than to avenge what the war has taken from her and to prove herself against this new opponent. But what awaits her might be her greatest challenge yet.

From her start as a promising athlete with worn-out shoes to her status as a glamorous international star, Alice Marble’s determination to control her own life and destiny fuels a story of achievement, discipline, loss, and love.

Jenni L. Walsh’s Ace, Marvel, Spy brilliantly showcases the life of Alice Marble, a real-life tennis sensation known for her extraordinary talent and indomitable spirit. This fast-paced and action-packed historical novel spans multiple international settings and is enhanced by discussion questions that prompt readers to reflect on Alice’s challenges and triumphs, making it an ideal choice for book clubs.

He was ready to die for love. He just needed to find the right girl.

October, 1891. Tom Rourke is a poet struggling to make a life amongst the Irish migrant workers in Butte, Montana. He is a doper and a drinker and a fearsome degenerate. His life is heading nowhere fast. That is until he meets Polly Gillespie, the new bride of a devout mine captain, and a thunderbolt love affair takes spark.

Tom and Polly strike out west on a stolen horse. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunsmen are in hot pursuit of the lovers, and closing in fast . . .

Douglas Murray, international bestselling author and renowned cultural commentator confronts what he views as the most pressing issue of our time: why Western support of the Palestinian cause is ultimately playing into the hands of a much more dangerous force.

Drawing from intensive on-the-ground reporting in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, Murray presents a compelling case that places the latest violence in its historical context. He takes readers on a harrowing journey through the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 massacre, piecing together exclusive accounts from victims, survivors and even the terrorists responsible for the atrocities.

On Democracies and Death Cults argues that Israel’s commitment to fundamental Western values – capitalism, individual rights, democracy and reason – has made it a beacon of progress in a region dominated by authoritarianism and extremism. Murray contrasts Israel’s principles with the ideology of Hamas, which openly proclaims its love of death over life. If left unchecked, Murray argues, this misplaced Western sympathy could embolden forces that seek to undermine democratic values and perpetuate a culture of violence.

Clear-eyed and deeply reasoned, On Democracies and Death Cults is a gripping and essential read for all who seek to understand the complexities of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and its implications for the future of democracy – and for the world itself.

In 38 Londres Street, Philippe Sands blends personal memoir, historical detective work and gripping courtroom drama to probe a secret double story of mass murder, one that reveals a shocking thread that links the horrors of the 1940s with those of our own times.

The house at 38 Londres Street is home to the legacies of two men whose personal stories span continents, nationalities and decades of atrocity: Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile, and Walther Rauff, a Nazi SS officer responsible for the use of gas vans.

On the run from justice at the end of the Second World War, Rauff crosses the ocean to southern Chile. He settles in Punta Arenas, Patagonia, managing a king crab cannery at the end of the world. But there are whispers about this discreet and self-possessed German – rumours of a second career with Pinochet’s secret intelligence service, the dreaded DINA.

In 1998, Pinochet is in a London medical clinic when the police enter his room and arrest him on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Philippe Sands is called to advise the former head of state on his claim to immunity, but will instead represent a human rights organisation against him. Years later, Sands makes a discovery while working on another book which reignites his interest in the case and leads to a decades-long investigation into Pinochet’s crimes, his unexpected connection to Rauff and the former Nazi’s possible connection to Chile’s disappeared.

As the fate of the world is decided, so too is that of the British, Dutch and French empires.

In India a generation committed to independence must decide whether to support ‘the Raj’ or fight alongside the Japanese. One military family is bitterly divided. Will it be the brother who fights under British command, or the one who follows Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, who goes on to help build a new and free India?

In Borneo a little known Australian special forces campaign – secretly controlled from London – goes horribly wrong as questions are asked about whether its true purpose is military or imperial.

And in Indochina and the East Indies British Generals free and arm Japanese prisoners of war and use them in savage campaigns that aim to put colonial rulers back into their palaces.

Clearing away the haze of nostalgia, many uncomfortable truths emerge – but so too does a humane and balanced exploration of what victory in the Second World War truly means.

The Second World War began in August 1939 on the edge of Manchuria and ended there exactly six years later with the Soviet invasion of northern China. The war in Europe appeared completely divorced from the war in the Pacific and China, and yet events on opposite sides of the world had profound effects. Using the most up-to-date scholarship and research, Beevor assembles the whole picture in a gripping narrative that extends from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and from the snowbound steppe to the North African Desert.

Although filling the broadest canvas on a heroic scale, Beevor’s The Second World War never loses sight of the fate of the ordinary soldiers and civilians whose lives were crushed by the titanic forces unleashed in the most terrible war in history.

A new perspective on Japan during the Asia-Pacific War, using remarkable first-hand Japanese source material.

Even after eighty years since the end of a conflict that killed thirty-five million people, there remains deeply-felt bitterness and anger about the way the Asia-Pacific War was fought, especially by the Japanese.

The war in the East stretched from Hawaii to India – with Japanese forces attacking Singapore, China and Malaysia, as well as bombing the north coast of Australia. The Allied forces, led by the US, waged an island-by-island counteroffensive that eventually saw the invasion of the Japanese homeland.

Japan has been vilified for the countless examples of its cruelty to civilians and prisoners of war. These criticisms have led to a backlash in Japan, where many deny that the accusations are true.

By going back to the origins of modern Japan, and by using only Japanese accounts, Japan’s War: Hirohito’s Holy War against the West offers a powerful account of the conflict and explains in detail why the Japanese conducted the war in the way that they did.

From actor, comedian, writer, and host of the hit history podcast SNAFU, Ed Helms brings you an absurdly entertaining look at history’s greatest screwups, complete with lively illustrations.

History contains a plethora of insane screwups-otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, “things are pretty screwed up, but aren’t they always?”

Spanning from the 1950’s to the 2000’s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher for a deep dive into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing the weather, this book will unpack the incredibly ironic decision-making and hilariously terrifying aftermath of America’s biggest mishaps.

Filled with sharp humor and lively illustrations, SNAFU is a wild ride through time that not only entertains but offers fresh insights that just might prevent history from repeating itself again and again.

What if the British Museum isn’t a carefully ordered cross section of history but is in instead a palatial trophy cabinet of colonial loot – swarming with volatile and errant spirits?

When artist and writer Noah Angell first heard murmurs of ghostly sightings at the British Museum he had to find out more. What started as a trickle soon became a deluge as staff old and new – from overnight security to respected curators – brought him testimonies of their supernatural encounters.

It became clear that the source of the disturbances was related to the Museum’s contents – unquiet objects, holy plunder, and restless human remains protesting their enforced stay within the colonial collection’s cabinets and deep underground vaults. According to those who have worked there, the institution is heaving with profound spectral disorder.

Ghosts of the British Museum fuses storytelling, folklore and history, digs deep into our imperial past and unmasks the world’s oldest national museum as a site of ongoing conflict, where restless objects are held against their will.

It now appears that the objects are fighting back.

For almost five decades after the Second World War, Europe was divided by the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. The Iron Curtain, a near-impenetrable barrier of wire and wall, tank traps, minefields, watchtowers and men with dogs, stretched for 4,300 miles from the Arctic to the Black Sea. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Instead, the conflict would be fought in the psychological sphere. It was a battle for hearts, minds and intellects.

No one understood this more clearly than George Minden, the head of a covert intelligence operation known as the ‘CIA books programme’, which aimed to win the Cold War with literature.

From its Manhattan headquarters, Minden’s global CIA ‘book club’ would infiltrate millions of banned titles into the Eastern Bloc, written by a vast and eclectic list of authors, including Hannah Arendt and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, George Orwell and Agatha Christie. Volumes were smuggled on trucks and aboard yachts, dropped from balloons, and hidden in the luggage of hundreds of thousands of individual travellers. Once inside Soviet bloc, each book would circulate secretly among dozens of like-minded readers, quietly turning them into dissidents. Latterly, underground print shops began to reproduce the books, too. By the late 1980s, illicit literature in Poland was so pervasive that the system of communist censorship broke down, and the Iron Curtain soon followed.

Charlie English tells this true story of spycraft, smuggling and secret printing operations for the first time, highlighting the work of a handful of extraordinary people who risked their lives to stand up to the intellectual strait-jacket Stalin created. People like Miroslaw Chojecki, an underground Polish publisher who endured beatings, force-feeding and exile in service of this mission. And Minden, the CIA’s mastermind, who didn’t waver in his belief that truth, culture, and diversity of thought could help free the ‘captive nations’ of Eastern Europe. This is a story about the power of the printed word as a means of resistance and liberation. Books, it shows, can set you free.