A great biography should be a readable and deeply-researched story of a person whose life and times can teach us something of our own, explains Andrea Wulf—author of a highly anticipated new biography of the explorer George Forster. Here, she recommends five biographies about 18th-century figures, including a landmark account of the life of Goethe and a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biography.

The books shortlisted for the 2026 Orwell Prizes, the UK's most prestigious awards for writing about politics, have been announced. "As judges, we returned again and again to what George Orwell means to us: clarity of prose and unflinching intellectual bravery," said Rohan Silva, chair of the judges for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, awarded annually for a nonfiction book. We've listed the brilliant books they chose below, from Cold War betrayals and the partition of India to the conflicts still going on in the world today.  

Every year, the judges for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction make a shortlist of the best new historical novels published over the previous twelve months. We spoke to Katharine Grant, prize judge and highly acclaimed author, about the five books that made the 2026 shortlist—from a "haunting and haunted" tale of triple murder on a Scottish island to a "gloriously told" reimagining of real-life intrigue during England's Wars of the Roses.

From the oracles of Ancient Greece to contemporary warnings about artificial intelligence, prophecies have always done more than merely forecast events. Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz, author of Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, recommends five books that explore prophecy's power and argues that resisting its lure may be one of the most important intellectual tasks of our time.

Remote and romanticised, Easter Island – or Rapa Nui – has often been misportrayed as a mysterious site of ecocidal ruin. Terry Hunt chooses five books that paint a truer picture of the island’s history, from the accounts of early voyages to the pressures of joining the modern world. The tale that emerges is one of ingenuity, resilience, and mighty 'statues that walked' – as well as a lot of rats.

Tennessee Williams was a giant of 20th-century American theatre, explains literary scholar Ahmed Honeini, whose new book unpicks Williams' preoccupation with domestic family drama. Here, Honeini selects five key books—landmark plays, personal memoirs and an influential biography—that illuminate the life of the great playwright.

Home to the Blarney Stone — said to bestow “the gift of the gab” — and with a long tradition of valuing bards and wandering storytellers, it is no surprise that Ireland has produced some of the most recognised names in the English language canon. Considering the small population, Irish authors continue to punch well above their weight in publishing. Here we bring you a selection of Irish authors that have been recommended on Five Books by experts, from bestselling and award-winning contemporary writers to both famous and less well-known classic authors.

The figure of the witch recurs across cultures and time periods, and remains a source of fascination even today. Here, Margaret Meyer—author of The Witching Tide, an acclaimed historical novel inspired by a notorious English witch hunt—recommends five brilliant fiction books about witches, and explains how the witch serves as a symbol of female power in a patriarchal society.

The Allied army that ultimately won against the Japanese in Burma was one of the largest in the world, with a million men under command. Military historian Lucy Betteridge-Dyson, whose grandfather fought in the Burma campaign, talks us through the best books to understand more about it, from big-picture strategic overviews to heart-wrenching memoirs and firsthand accounts of soldiers who were there.

The ancient world is sometimes seen as a golden age of tolerance for same-sex love, later swept away by the rise of Christianity. The reality is more complicated, argues historian Harry Tanner, with acceptance and persecution ebbing and flowing in line with pressures on society. He recommends five books for a better understanding of same-sex love in ancient times, including the Biblical world.