To understand what Britain has become we need to know what it has been. The first volume in this history tells the story of Britain from the time of the earliest settlements, discovered in the Orkneys, to the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Each chapter focuses on a major theme.

Uniquely complete account of the British Empire - Jan Morris' great Penguin trilogy PAX BRITANNICA only starts from 1837, rather than the 16th Century. A modern classic of narrative history, updated to include the 1997 handover of Hong Kong.

This work is a compelling chronicle of the changes that transformed every strand and strata of British life, faith and thought from 1603 to 1776. It explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change.

Recreates the excitement, brutality and adventure of the British Empire. This book is a major reinterpretation of the British Empire as one of the world's modernising forces. It shows how the British Empire in the 19th Century spearheaded real globalisation with steampower, telegraphs, guns, engineers, missionaries and millions of settlers.

The war between the houses of Lancaster and York for England's throne saw some of the bloodiest battles on England's soil. This account of the war focuses on the human side - on the people and personalities involved in the conflict, chiefly King Henry VI and the Duke of York, Richard Plantagenet.

One of the most powerful monarchs in British history, Henry VIII ruled England in unprecedented splendour. This biography brings Henry's six wives to life, revealing each as a distinct and compelling personality in her own right.

The story of the death, in sinister circumstances, of the boy-king Edward V and his brother Richard, is one of the fascinating murder mysteries in English history. This book re-examines the evidence - including that against the Princes' uncle, Richard III. It reconstructs the chain of events and reveals how, why and by whose order they died.

Traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. This title portrays legendary and semi-legendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of all British heroes, King Arthur.

Sex, intrigue and adultery in the world of high politics and huge wealth in late eighteenth-century England.

A bestselling historian's account of the Gunpowder Plot - 'History as it should be written' - Roy Strong.

Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History' was completed in 731 and still ranks among the most popular of history books. In this edition, the Latin text is accompanied by a English translation; the introduction provides an historical background and a survey of surviving manuscripts

Published to accompany a Channel 4 series, Starkey turns the paradox into a person. This new approach to the enigma of Elizabeth's character presents a retelling of her reign, her love for Robert Dudley, the tragi-comedy of her suitors, her epic struggles with Mary and Philip II and the final debacle of her relationship with Robert Devereux.

A history book which aims to change the way we think about our past.

The tenth anniversary edition of the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. With a new foreword by astronaut Neil Armstrong.

This work takes us from the mid-1770s when the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy through to the massive advances of technology and industrialisation during the Victoria era, and the burgeoning of the British Empire.

Volume I of Sir Winston Churchill's classic History of the English-Speaking Peoples; with an introduction by Andrew Roberts, author of Eminent Churchillians

A biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship of their lives and marked the intersection of the great Tudor and Stuart dynasties. At its core were their rival claims to the throne of England.

Antonia Fraser's bestselling biography of Henry VIII's six wives - a subject of enduring fascination.

How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? This book examines how a more cohesive British nation was invented after 1707 and how this new national identity was nurtured through war, religion, trade, and empire.

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine was one of the leading personalities of the Middle Ages, and also one of the most controversial. Having inherited a vast feudal domain stretching from the Loire to the Pyrenees, she was one of the greatest heiresses in history. This biography offers a perspective on this woman.