Item category 1: Countries: History & Geography

Between 1941 and 1945, more than eight hundred shiploads of supplies were delivered to the Soviet Union protected by allied naval forces. Each journey was a battle against the elements, with turbulent seas, extreme cold, and the constant dread of torpedoes. These Arctic convoys have been mytholog...

The spellbinding new book by the prizewinning writer Kapka Kassabova tells the story of her time with the last moving pastoralists in Europe: a gripping portrayal of human-animal interdependence, and a plea for a different way of living. Living with one of these communities over the course of one...

Retro Melbourne is a pictorial feast of rare images of the city, suburbs and country centres taken by photographer Fred Mitchell in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Melbourne street scenes, people heading off to work, trams and traffic and businesses and buildings now long gone are displayed in ...

The British government supported the initial US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and subsequently committed troops to Kabul and northern Afghanistan from 2002 onwards. However, in January 2006, following NATO's expansion southwards, Britain committed a battlegroup from the Parachute Regiment to H...

A gripping account of hidden identity, military courage, and an against-all-odds reunion. Four days after Germany's surrender in May 1945, a young British officer took a jeep and headed east into Germany. But this was no ordinary soldier. Manfred Gans was searching for his family. As a Jewish boy...

Genghis Khan built a formidable land empire, but he never crossed the sea. Yet by the time his grandson Khublai Khan had defeated the last vestiges of the Song empire and established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, the Mongols controlled the most powerful navy in the world. How did a nomad come to conq...

On the beaches of Normandy, two summers before D-Day, the Allies attempted an all but forgotten landing. Of the nearly seven thousand Allied troops sent ashore, only a few hundred survived the terrible massacre, and the reason for the debacle was a lack of reconnaissance. The shore turned out to ...

Richly illustrated with photographs of historical heritage, this book chronicles major events which led to the rise and fall of dynasties. The focus is also on historical figures such as a petty bureaucrat in the Qin dynasty, a writer who loved travelling, or a scholar-official who devoted himsel...

In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa's resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants, if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian...

A panoramic narrative that places ancient Africa on the stage of world history. This book brings together archaeological and linguistic evidence to provide a sweeping global history of ancient Africa, tracing how the continent played an important role in the technological, agricultural, and econo...

Stretching from Fiji in the east to New Guinea in the west, Melanesia is astonishingly diverse. Its islands are home to some 1200 language groups, many of them still isolated from the outside world. In Australia, this complex region tends to make the news only in times of crisis- military coups i...

The true story of the discovery of gold in Australia and the shameless pretender who took the credit, from the popular author of Rum. Ask Google "Who discovered gold in Australia?" and you'll promptly get 'Edward Hammond Hargraves'. Hargraves has for decades received the fame, fortune and adulati...

A Scotsman's guide to the extraordinary tapestry of the land, history, folklore and stories of his homeland. From the majestic beauty of the wild Scottish landscape to the hidden traces of its history waiting to be uncovered in every town and village, Andrew McAlindon is enthralled by the country...