FIVE NEW HISTORY BOOKS TO READ THIS MONTH
From Tudor art to Renaissance medicine to self-betterment through Stoic virtues
The books land on my doormat by the half dozen at the moment. That’s what this bit of the autumn is like. Some of these books I ordered months ago when I first heard about them. Some I didn’t order at all, but kind authors and diligent publicists send them my way.
They come faster than I can open the packages. My office is full of books - every shelf holds double rows, the tables are piled five and six high, there are stacks of books all over the floor. No matter. I want more.
Here are five of the books that have arrived this month that I am most excited about. These are all nonfiction history books. I keep an eye out for historical fiction too. More of that next time I do one of these posts.
Oh, and by the way, I have several new-ish releases of my own. There’s a beautiful limited, signed edition of The Hollow Crown via The Broken Binding. You can get my biography of Henry V in paperback now. My final Essex Dogs trilogy novel, Lion Hearts is out now in the UK and the US. There’s a Broken Binding signed limited edition of that too. And I’ve written a horror story in a new anthology, called Monstrous Tales. Take your pick.
The Two Hundred Years War by Michael Livingston
For my money, Michael Livingston is one of the best military historians working today. His books on the battles of Crécy and Agincourt have been invaluable to me in writing my Essex Dogs novels and Henry V. In The Two Hundred Years War, Livingston shows how the war that is usually thought to have begun under Edward III and ended under Henry VI, in fact extended much further in time, and should be reframed to take in the last years of Edward I ‘Longshanks’ and the early Tudor years. For those who find the thought of Jonathan Sumption’s five-volume history of the HYW all a bit much, this is the book for you.
Buy it: UK, USA, The Broken Binding.
The Story of Tudor Art by Christina J. Faraday
