The UK or, to give it its full title, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state comprising 4 countries or, more accurately, three and a half, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (The Republic of Ireland - Eire - has been an independent state for about a century). The constitutional relationship between the constituent parts has always been contested (often violently) and remains so to this day.
We have a lot of interviews relating to the UK, to its politics and history, its culture, literature and its royal family. Like the country itself, there is a bias towards England.
On the history front, we have Stephen Pincus choosing his best books on the Glorious Revolution, Matthew Green looking at London’s addictions, essentially the role that chocolate, tobacco, coffee and tea have played in the social life of the capital over the centuries. Ian Mortimer looks at Life in the Tudor era, Stella Tillyard at the history of the Regency Period and Juliet Gardiner at life in 1930s Britain.
A number of interviews looks at issues related specifically to the UK's Imperial history. David Cannadine chooses his best books on the British Empire. And Bernard Bailyn looks at the UK’s imperial role in his best books on Atlantic history. Julia Lovell looks at the Opium Wars.
Other interviews relate to culture in the UK. Interviews on Shakespeare, the UK’s greatest Romantic poems, the Oxford English dictionary, buildings in the UK, the English countryside and British Cinema, to name a few.
There are plenty of interviews covering UK politics. Jonathan Portes chooses his best books on Brexit. Murray Pittock looks at Irish Unionism, and Anthony Seldon on Prime Ministers. Peter Kellner looks at British democracy and David Owen on Constitutional Reform.
There are also a lot of interviews on the UK’s monarchy and the royal family. Hugo Vickers chooses his best royal biographies, and Andrew Morton his best on British royalty. Helen Castor her best on Queens and Power. Thomas Penn looks at Henry VII and John Morrill at Oliver Cromwell.
The Best Crime Fiction of 2019, recommended by Val McDermid
It’s been a great year for crime fiction – with soaring sales and global bestsellers emerging from writers all over the world. Crime writing is rightly in the ascendancy, says the celebrated Scottish novelist Val McDermid as she selects the best crime fiction of 2019: five books that stand as great novels in their own right.
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All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class
by Tim Shipman -
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Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem
by Tim Shipman -
3
A History of Britain, Volume III: The Fate of the Empire 1776–2000
by Simon Schama -
4
The Time of My Life
by Denis Healey -
5
The Road to 1945: British Politics and the Second World War
by Paul Addison -
6
Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter
by John O'Farrell
The best books on Modern British History, recommended by Andrew Hindmoor
The best books on Modern British History, recommended by Andrew Hindmoor
What will historians say about the latest period in British history? What has stayed the same, and what is vastly different from our parents’ generation? Andrew Hindmoor, professor of politics at the University of Sheffield and author of Twelve Days that Made Modern Britain, recommends books that give insights into contemporary British history.
The best books on Brexit, recommended by Boris Starling
Looking for a good Brexit book? Brexit is as complicated as the Schleswig-Holstein question and as vicious as Game of Thrones. Boris Starling, author of The Bluffer’s Guide to Brexit, talks us through some Brexit books that will leave you better read and even more mystified about what the future holds for Britain and Europe.
The Best Books by Muriel Spark, recommended by Alan Taylor
This year marks the centenary of the birth of the novelist, poet and essayist Muriel Spark, a singular voice of 20th century literature. Her 22 novels are slim and entertaining says Alan Taylor, author of Appointment in Arezzo, but beneath the jeux d’esprit lies a fearsome intellect. Here he selects five of her key works.
The best books on The Glorious Revolution, recommended by Steven Pincus
When William of Orange came from Holland to take the English throne in 1688, was it a foreign invasion, or a revolution from within? Yale historian, Steven Pincus, talks us through the conflicting views on the Glorious Revolution and argues for a new perspective.
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The Identity of Ulster: The Land, the Language and the People
by Ian Adamson -
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Irish Unionism
by Patrick Buckland -
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The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions
by Ruth Dudley Edwards -
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Home Rule: An Irish History 1800-2000
by Alvin Jackson -
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The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History
by Eric Kaufmann
The best books on Irish Unionism, recommended by Murray Pittock
The best books on Irish Unionism, recommended by Murray Pittock
As is the norm in many countries with proportional representation, the United Kingdom’s government depends on a small political party to stay in power. Who are the Irish unionists? What is the ideology that guides them? Historian and pro-vice principal of Glasgow University, Murray Pittock, recommends the best books to read to better understand Irish unionism.
Nick Clegg on his Favourite Books
Much as some Brexiteers like to pretend it isn’t, England is not only in Europe, but has been, in various centuries and in various ways, at the very heart of it. The former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Nick Clegg, discusses his favourite European novels and the founding text of his own political ideology, liberalism.
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What Next: How to get the best from Brexit
by Daniel Hannan -
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Brexit Beckons: Thinking ahead by leading economists
by Richard Baldwin (ed) -
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Branching histories of the 2016 referendum and ‘the frogs before the storm’
by Dominic Cummings -
4
Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union
by Harold Clarke, Matthew Goodwin & Paul Whiteley -
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Autumn
by Ali Smith
Jonathan Portes recommends the best things to read on Brexit
Jonathan Portes recommends the best things to read on Brexit
Why did Brexit happen? What does the future hold for Britain outside the European Union? Can trade economists help? The economist and former head of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a non-partisan think tank, recommends the best books (and one blogpost) on Brexit.
The Best Transnational Literature, recommended by Mohsin Hamid
Beleaguered ‘citizens of nowhere’ will be pleased to know they have their own literary genre. For anyone who has ever wondered where they belong, or why, when you leave your home country, it’s never the same when you return, here are the best five books to read—including some by the greatest authors of the 20th century.
The Best Adam Smith Books, recommended by Dennis Rasmussen
Adam Smith tends to be seen as the founder of capitalism and modern economics, but he was, first and foremost, a moral philosopher. Dennis Rasmussen, author of The Infidel and the Professor—a book about Smith’s friendship with David Hume—selects the best books by and about Adam Smith.
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English Society 1660-1832
by Jonathan Clark -
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The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1715-1754
by Romney Sedgwick ed. -
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Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788
by Paul Monod -
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1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion
by Daniel Szechi -
5
France and the Jacobite Rising of 1745
by Frank McLynn
The best books on Jacobitism, recommended by Murray Pittock
The best books on Jacobitism, recommended by Murray Pittock
The failure of the Stuarts to win back the English or Scottish throne changed the course of history, enabling the buildup of a highly centralized British state and, possibly, America’s war for independence. Murray Pittock chooses the best books on Jacobitism, the 18th century phenomenon that nearly overthrew the British government.
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Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary
by K. M. Elisabeth Murray -
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The Collected Papers of Henry Bradley
by Robert Bridges -
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The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester -
4
The Study of Language in England, 1780-1860
by Hans Aarsleff -
5
The Scholar's Daughter
by Beatrice Harraden
The best books on The Oxford English Dictionary, recommended by Peter Gilliver
The best books on The Oxford English Dictionary, recommended by Peter Gilliver
It's a dictionary that seeks to document any word that exists—or ever existed—in the English language and track its evolution over time. Lexicographer Peter Gilliver chooses books to help understand the enormous undertaking that is the Oxford English Dictionary.
Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays
In our Shakespeare series, we ask experts to select their favourite plays from the Bard’s oeuvre. Here, preeminent Shakespearean scholar Sir Stanley Wells chooses five plays that best chart the evolution of the Bard of Avon during his 25-year career.
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William Wordsworth: The Major Works
by Stephen Gill (editor) -
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Major Works
by H. J. Jackson (Editor) -
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Willam Blake: Selected Poetry
by Nicholas Shrimpton & William Blake -
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Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works
by Michael O'Neill (Editor) & Zachary Leader (Editor) -
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John Keats: The Major Works
by Elizabeth Cook (Editor)
The Greatest Romantic Poems, recommended by Gillen D'Arcy Wood
The Greatest Romantic Poems, recommended by Gillen D'Arcy Wood
Freud said he owed them everything and even people who have never read a poem in their lives speak their language today. Gillen D’Arcy Wood, Professor of Environmental Humanities and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, explains who the Romantic poets were and recommends five of the greatest Romantic poems.
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Killing Thinking: The Death of the Universities
by Mary Evans -
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Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures
by Edward Said -
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The Great University Gamble: Money, Markets and the Future of Higher Education
by Andrew McGettigan -
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Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents
by Elaine Showalter -
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Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
by bell hooks
The best books on Academia, recommended by Les Back
The best books on Academia, recommended by Les Back
Current UK higher education policies, which treat students as consumers, are not only killing thinking but also likely to lead to a financial crisis. And yet, academia is a beautiful vocation, with the power to transform lives year in, year out. University of London professor, Les Back, picks the best books on academia.
The best books on London Fog, recommended by Christine L. Corton
Christine L. Corton describes how Londoners loved and hated the fog that defined their city for over 200 years. Fog bought confusion, suicide and death; but also anonymity, mystery and beauty. Here, she picks the best five books on the pea-souper
The best books on The Truth Behind the Headlines, recommended by Lorraine Adams
Why do huge stories sometimes go unreported? Our news media are good at promulgating conventional wisdom but find it much more difficult to deal with evidence that contradicts it, says the former Washington Post reporter
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Atlantic History
by Bernard Bailyn -
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Empires of the Atlantic World
by JH Elliott -
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Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
by David Eltis and David Richardson -
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The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800
by David Armitage and Michael J Braddick (editors) -
5
Soundings in Atlantic History
by Bernard Bailyn (editor)
The best books on Atlantic History, recommended by Bernard Bailyn
The best books on British Prime Ministers, recommended by Anthony Seldon
It’s their frailty that makes politicians such interesting characters, says Tony Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon. He tells us about the art of political biography and the writers who’ve best captured leaders such as Churchill and Thatcher
The best books on British Buildings, recommended by Harry Mount
Bestselling author Harry Mount thinks that the British sell themselves short when they fail to appreciate their architecture. He also expresses his thanks that Christopher Wren didn’t redesign London on a Parisian/New York grid system following the 1666 fire.
The best books on The English Countryside, recommended by Paul Brassley
The English countryside on a sunny summer’s day is one of the most beguiling places in the world to be. But how has it changed since the Black Death? Is there still a meaningful difference between urban and rural society? Rural historian Paul Brassley talks us through the best books to get a fuller understanding of England’s green and pleasant land.
The best books on Samuel Johnson, recommended by Peter Lilley
Samuel Johnson, author of the 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language, was not a hard-hearted Tory caricature, but a champion of the poor and enslaved, according to Margaret Thatcher’s Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Lilley.