Europe Books

Historian and novelist James Holland talks us through some of his favourite memoirs and novels about the Second World War and explains his lifelong fascination with the global conflict.

The author of The Maid and the Queen takes us on an enjoyable ride through European history, looking at well-connected women who outwitted their husbands or asserted their independence.

The traumas of the 20th century hit Eastern Europe hard – a region of changing borders, uncertain identity, and shattering of moral norms. The journalist and communism expert selects books that capture the spirit of the age.

Dissent is not just about anger, but about having a rival articulation of the world, argues American historian Timothy Snyder. He recommends five books by European writers of the 20th century who lived in regimes that "not only monopolised violence but threatened it in an everyday sense" and tells us what today’s dissidents can learn from their experience.

The Dutch science journalist takes a light-hearted look at national stereotypes: why Dutch women are happy, and what it means to be blonde. She picks the best books on Dutch women.

Veteran diplomat Michael Palliser discusses his friend Henry Kissinger’s diplomatic skills and says his experiences in post-war Germany made him a committed European

Booker Prize-winning translator David Bellos says Les Misérables is the greatest novel of all time. When it came out, "it was an event bigger than the launch of Titanic and Avatar put together." He picks the five greatest French novels.

The historian and author chooses five books on de Gaulle and the Resistance. He says the British tried to veto de Gaulle’s famous 1940 speech from London calling on the French to stand up to German occupation

Princeton professor of Hellenic studies says the 17th-century Mediterranean is fascinating because it was a time when nobody was in charge. And yet, it was possible to have "order without law"

From the tyranny of Franco in Spain to the silence of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust, Carmen Callil (1938-2022), author of Bad Faith, recommends books on some darker aspects of European and French history in the 19th and 20th centuries.