Pick of the best forthcoming History books ...

The Battle for Spain by Anthony Beevor

Over 20 years ago Anthony Beevor wrote ‘The Spanish Civil War’, his first work of non-fiction to be published. On the 70th anniversary of the commencement of the conflict the bestselling author of ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘Berlin: the Downfall’ revisits and revises his earlier work. In the intervening years a mass of new documentary evidence has surfaced from the Spanish, German and Russian Archives. These rich seams of primary source material have enabled Beevor to produce a substantially rewritten account of that most uncivil of civil wars.

Characterised by atrocities on both sides and bitter infighting between the different poitical and regional factions, the Spanish Civil War became a rallying point for international resistance to the rise of European fascism. The conflict began with a Coup d’etat in July 1936 and concluded in 1939 in defeat for the Republican cause as General Franco seized power. The three-year Civil War has resonated resoundingly through our common European culture - many of the events and characters have become iconic; the German bombing of Guernica, the murder of Federico Garcia Lorca, the actions and writings of George Orwell, Laurie Lee and the other International Volunteers, Robert Capa’s photograph of the Loyalist soldier framed at the very moment of bullet-impact.

The Spanish edition of Anthony Beevor’s ‘The Battle for Spain’ has topped the bestseller lists for more than three months already and will no doubt replicate its success over here. Beevor has crafted another 500 page definitive account of a history making conflict, a sure fire bestseller for the summer – and beyond.





Sex with the Queen by Eleanor Herman

Bed fellow to last year’s ‘Sex with Kings’ this companion volume from Eleanor Herman flings back the sheets to reveal the corporeal couplings and machiavellian love-making of Queens over a millenium. This frothy and frisky right royal romp has a colourful cast including Anne Boleyn, Katherine the Great and Marie Antionette. In the final analysis Herman shows that it was not the bed-hopping that determined the fates of queens but rather the realpolitik of European court intrigues – on occasion infidelities were tolerated and even encouraged if power was at stake.




Germany 1944 British Soldier’s Pocketbook

This soldier’s pocketbook from 1944, and the tale of its creation, reveal a fascinating moment of history: a snapshot of prejudices, expectations and fears. It was created in conditions of secrecy to prepare British and Allied soldiers for entering and occupying Germany – but at a time when victory was not assured.

Part practical guide, part everyman’s history of the German people, part propaganda tool, it shows how the Allied civilian and military command wanted to condition the ordinary serviceman’s thoughts about what he would encounter. Today’s reader will find opinionated comment and crude stereotype, but also insights and humour – much unintentional. This pocketbook reveals as much about the mindset of the British as it does about the German nation. This is a wonderful piece of real – if not surreal – history; the ‘Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide – Invasion’ crossed with a Baedeker.


Gangs of Liverpool by Michael Macilwee

With a conscious nod of acknowledgement in look and feel to Herbert Asbury’s ‘Gangs of New York’, Liverpudlian academic Michael Macilwee has chronicled the exploits of the numerous street gangs terrorising Liverpool from the 1870s. The slums that festered in the shadows of one of the worlds greatest and most prosperous seaports bred the likes of ‘The High Rip Gang’, ‘The Dead Rabbits’, the ‘Hibernians’ and also juvenile copycat mobs of street urchins such as ‘The Housebreakers’ and ‘The Lemon Street Gang’. The best advice to give a visitor to Liverpool city centre at the end of the 19th Century was: ‘Never walk alone’.