Named "Man of the Millennium" in 1999, Johannes Gutenberg was the creator of one of the most influential and revolutionary inventions in Europe's history: a printing press with mechanical movable type
Accompanying the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 program, Reflections features interviews with twelve of Britain's most influential political figures from the last twenty years. Presented by Peter Hennessy, one
With almost 13 million residents, Tokyo is now as much an icon of modernity as it is a city, with its neon-lit billboards, futuristic technology, and avant-garde fashion scene. But the long and f
The Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia are remote and largely neglected by outsiders. Will Buckingham went there, as an anthropologist in training, with a mission. He hoped to meet three remarkable sc
Max has been married to Tina for twenty-five years. She is the love of his life, but now he must come to terms with the fact that she is to spend a year away on a work assignment—away, for the f
The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is often seen as the quintessential eighteenth-century tourist, though with the exception of a trip to Italy he hardly left his homeland. Compared to sev
The great British dilemma is this: Britain is a country forever wrestling with two moral sides—whether to be viewed as a lion that roars and conquers, or a gentle lamb that gambols happily. In t
Travel was a way of life for the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, and it was integral to his work. Between 1897 and 1920 he visited Venice ten times. The city has inspired countless writ
Fronted by one of the world's most iconic doors, 10 Downing Street is the home and office of the British Prime Minister and the heart of British politics. This is the story of the intimately entwined
Ninety years ago the League of Nations convened for the first time hoping to settle disputes by diplomacy not war. This book looks at how the League was shaped and the multifaceted body that emerged,
Known by the Greeks as `Megalonisos', the `Great Island', Crete has been of paramount strategic importance for thousands of years thanks to its location close to the junction of three continents and t
From the famed Atlantis to the remote Rupes Nigra, islands have long held our fascination: they are locales isolated from ordinary life, lurking in unexplored corners of the globe and thus full of und
To the vast majority of the English public, the role of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has often been distant and incomprehensible, its judges a caste apart from society. The Power of Judges
Though once a source of violent conflict, the border dividing the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland has been relatively stable in recent years. The border’s creation in 1921 exacerbated
We live in a profoundly challenging era for journalists. While the profession has historically taken on the mantle of providing clear, sound information to the public, journalists now face competition
“Will someone pay for the spilled blood? No. Nobody.” When Mikhail Bulgakov composed this dark and prophetic phrase in Kiev amid the turmoil of the Russian civil war, the political trouble
From his earliest childhood, Giles Radice has held Europe close to his heart. Ten years after the end of World War II, at the age of 18, he set off to cycle across the continent. Meeting his European
Throughout Britain, Civil Servants are exposed to public scrutiny today in unprecedented ways. What does it mean that the political neutrality of the Civil Service has only been enshrined in la
The Power of Politicians takes readers inside the workings of Parliament via an autobiographical account of Tessa Jowell’s own experience of entering politics as an MP. Jowell offers fascin
The Versailles Settlement, at the time of its creation a vital part of the Paris Peace Conference, suffers today from a poor reputation: despite its lofty aim to settle the world’s affairs at a
For forty years, Barnaby Rogerson has travelled across North Africa, making sense of the region’s complex and fascinating history as both a writer and a guide. Throughout that time there have al
In May 1940, the British War Cabinet debated over the course of nine meetings a simple question: Should Britain fight on in the face of overwhelming odds, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives, o
In 2015, an unprecedented number of people from Africa and the Near East took flight and sought refuge in Europe. By the end of that year, some 1.8 million migrants had arrived in the EU, the vast maj
Simone Veil, the former French lawyer and politician who became the first President of the European Union, was born Simone Jacob in 1927. In A Life, she describes in vivid detail a childhood of happin
‘”From the very first moment they realize that the Hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca—is among the duties of each and every Muslim, the faithful long to go.” This book prsents
In his famous report of 1942, the economist and social reformer William Beveridge wrote that World War II was a “revolutionary moment in the world’s history” and so a time “for
