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Best Biographies » New Biography

Browse book recommendations:

Best Biographies

• Ancient Biographies
• Artists' Biographies
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• Scientific Biographies

The best new biographies. We scrutinized the bookshelves to bring you the best of the recent biographies. "There’s no rubric for what makes a great biography—they just provide a sense of what it means to be human"—Elizabeth Taylor, author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee.

Monet: The Restless Vision

By jackie wullschläger.

Read expert recommendations

“As I read it, at first Monet is not an attractive character. You think, ‘This is absolutely why, as a woman, you should not live with an artist.’ It’s full of scrounging letters, and the suffering of these women who are, of course, immortalised in beautiful portraits by him, but following him around or being abandoned by him…She explains quite how it is that he comes to revolutionise art and to create these ravishing works that are just luminous. She writes very beautifully about it. As life goes on, instead of being improvident, he becomes very wealthy. Finally, you see him at Giverny employing six gardeners, one of whom has to dust off the water lilies! There’s great pathos. You’re won over to him, as his life goes on, and see how he, too, has suffered for his art. It’s a rich and moving account.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2024 Duff Cooper Prize

Susan Brigden , Historian

Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor

By donald j. robertson.

“In another Yale series, Ancient Lives, there’s a new biography of the 2nd-century Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, whose book, Meditations , is often recommended for those interested in the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. It’s by Donald Robertson, a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and a firm believer that Stoicism has much to teach us in our daily lives.” Read more...

Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024

Sophie Roell , Journalist

Who Is Big Brother?: A Reader's Guide to George Orwell

By d j taylor.

“On the subject of political dystopias, Orwell biographer D.J. Taylor has a new book out about him: Who is Big Brother? A Reader’s Guide to George Orwell . You’ll learn a lot about Orwell’s life and how it made its way into his books.” Read more...

Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story

By sophie elmhirst.

“ Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmshirst is about an ordinary couple from Derby who set out to sail around the world in the early 1970s. The reason we know about them is that theirs turned into a survival story: their boat was sunk by a sperm whale and they were left adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. It’s an easy and engaging read: I started it one evening after dinner and stayed up to finish it just after midnight.” Read more...

We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience

By lyndsey stonebridge.

We Are Free to Change the World by Lyndsey Stonebridge is an excellent, well-written book that shows why Hannah Arendt is still an important and sometimes controversial thinker today.

The Genius of their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the Lost Enlightenment

By s. frederick starr.

“Also hailing from central Asia are the main protagonists of The Genius of Their Age: Ibn Sina, Biruni and the Lost Enlightenment by S. Frederick Starr. It’s a dual biography of Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) and Biruni, key figures in the flowering of science and philosophy that took place in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages. Both men were born in the 10th century in modern-day Uzbekistan. This is an important period for anyone interested in the history of science, a missing gap in Western curricula (at least in my day).” Read more...

Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer

By lorraine byrne bodley.

“Other biographies published recently include one about the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). It’s called Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer by Lorraine Byrne Bodley, a professor of musicology at Maynooth University. Schubert famously died aged just 31, but striking early in the book is how old that was compared to some of his siblings. This book is written so it’s accessible to non-musicians, but this is a serious work of scholarship.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

By nicholas shakespeare.

“Another is Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books. Ian Fleming: The Complete Man is an authorized biography and offsets some of the more negative accounts of his life as a train wreck which ended early (he died of heart disease at age 56)…Both my parents were Dutch and I suppose like others around the world we half-believed that James Bond/Ian Fleming was a typical mid-20th century Englishman. With this book, we find out a bit more what Fleming was actually like.” Read more...

by Walter Isaacson

“Isaacson sat at the feet of Musk – literally, in the same room as Musk – for two or three years, I think. The whole second half of the book is about the last three years, so it’s very detailed. It’s very much reporting. He doesn’t step back except right at the end, and then to make a rather general point about how you need the good and the bad in order to have a genius…Isaacson doesn’t say, ‘I’m now going to make a judgment on what’s happened.’ It’s very much an account of being with this extraordinary, tempestuous entrepreneur…It’s a long book with very short chapters. It’s quite punchy, in that sense of ‘OK now we’re moving on’ which gives you a bit of an impression of what it must be like to live with or work with Elon Musk. But it doesn’t then step back and say how significant it is.” Read more...

The Best Business Books of 2023: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award

Andrew Hill , Journalist

Vergil: The Poet's Life

By sarah ruden.

“One interesting book for fans of the great epic poem of the Augustus years, the Aeneid, is a literary biography of its author, Vergil. Vergil: The Poet’s Life is by American scholar and translator Sarah Ruden. Other than his poem, we don’t know much about the author, so Ruden has to do a lot of heavy lifting, but why not? Ruden recently translated the Aeneid , and you can also read her Five Books interview about Vergil.” Read more...

Spinoza: Life and Legacy

By jonathan israel.

Spinoza: Life and Legacy is a new biography of the 17th-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza , by historian Jonathan Israel. Israel is a leading historian of early modern Europe, and an expert on the Dutch Republic, the tolerant—by 17th-century standards—world in which Spinoza grew up. His parents had fled Portugal because of the Inquisition and, as Israel points out, that "dark Iberian context was a crucial factor in Spinoza's background, early life, and formation and likewise an essential dimension for understanding his thought generally." The book builds on Steven Nadler's biography of Spinoza , and at more than 1,200 pages is absolutely not for beginners. Rather, it's for those seeking to think deeply—and disagree with Israel at times, no doubt—about Spinoza and his life and thought.

(If you're looking for a more introductory approach to Spinoza, our interview about him is with Steven Nadler )

Ramesses the Great: Egypt's King of Kings

By toby wilkinson.

“Other biographies out these past three months include Ramesses the Great by Toby Wilkinson, the Cambridge Egyptologist…Both rulers spent a lot of time and energy building their reputations, which may be why we’re reading about them three millennia…later” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Early Summer 2023

Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan

By felipe fernández-armesto.

Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan is historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's takedown of the Portuguese explorer whose disastrous expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe.

Rebels Against the Raj

By ramachandra guha.

🏆 Winner of the 2023 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography

The foreigners who fought against Franco in Spain are much feted in literature and the popular imagination, those who helped India fight for its independence from the British Empire not so much. In this book, Indian historian Ramachandra Guha tells the story of seven of them (five Brits and two Americans), rescuing them from obscurity.

G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

By beverly gage.

🏆  Winner of the 2023 NBCC Biography Award

“Hoover answered to no voters. The quintessential ‘Government Man,’ a counselor and advisor to eight U.S. presidents, of both political parties, he was one of the most powerful, unelected government officials in history. He reigned over the Federal Bureau of Investigations from 1924 to 1972. Hoover began as a young reformer and—as he accrued power—was simultaneously loathed and admired. Through Hoover, Gage skilfully guides readers through the full arc of 20th-century America, and contends: ‘We cannot know our own story without understanding his.'” Read more...

The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist

Elizabeth Taylor , Biographer

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler

By rebecca donner.

🏆  Winner of the 2021 National Book Critics Circle award for biography

🏆  Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld award for biography

The highly acclaimed biography of Mildred Harnack, an American doctoral student living in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, who became an important anti-Nazi activist and later a spy for Allied forces during the Second World War. Arrested by the Gestapo in Sweden, she was tried by a Nazi military court and finally executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days , Harnack's great-great-niece reconstructs her story in an astonishing work of nonfiction that draws together letters, intelligence documents and the testimony of survivors to create this remarkable story of moral courage.

King: A Life

By jonathan eig.

“I was excited to see a new biography of Martin Luther King Jr. by American journalist and biographer Jonathan Eig. Like many foreigners who spend time in the US, I was aware who Martin Luther King Jr. was and his importance, but not the details nor why he shared a name with a 16th-century German monk (whom my history professors at Oxford seemed to think important). This biography is highly readable and, according to the introduction, draws on new information, particularly on Mike’s father.” Read more...

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

By jonathan freedland.

“This book is extraordinary because Rudolf Vrba and a fellow inmate, Alfred Wetzler, were the first Jews ever to break out of Auschwitz. Jonathan Freedland is a fiction writer too—he writes thrillers under the name Sam Bourne—so there is an element of thriller in the way that he describes this escape and the build-up to it. It is incredibly heart-in-your-mouth compelling. But it’s a bigger story than just one man’s breakout. Vrba goes on to try and put the word out about what’s going on in Auschwitz and saves many lives in the process. The book is memorializing one man’s heroism.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Caroline Sanderson , Journalist

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science

By john tresch.

✩ Finalist for the  Los Angeles Times  Book Award for biography

✩ Nominated for the Edgar Award for best work of criticism or biography

John Tresch, a professor of history of art and science at the Warburg Institute, situates the iconic American author in an era "when the lines separating entertainment, speculation and scientific inquiry were blurred." The troubled horror writer embraced contradiction, exposing the hoaxes of contemporary scientific fraudsters even as he perpetuated his own.

Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman

By kaya şahin.

A new biography of Süleyman (often called 'the Magnificent' in the West, but not in this book), the Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1520 to 1566.  He was one of the most powerful men in the world but to the modern reader, his life seems utterly tragic. The book is by Kaya Şahin, a historian at Indiana University, who is able to bring his knowledge of Turkish sources to the story. Another aim of the book is "to restore Süleyman's place among the major figures of the sixteenth century"—which also included Henry VIII, Charles V and Francis I (Europe), Ivan IV (Russia), Babur and Akbar (India), Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasb (Iran).

Kennan: A Life between Worlds

By frank costigliola.

Kennan: A Life between World s is an excellent biography of George Kennan, the American diplomat and Russophile who first raised alarm bells about Stalin after World War II, authoring an anonymous article in Foreign Affairs and "The Long Telegram". His biographer Frank Costigliola brings to life a man who loved Tolstoy and Chekhov, was devastated at never knowing his mother, and spent most of his life opposing the policy of containment towards the Soviet Union that he's best known for.

The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville

By olivier zunz.

🏆  Winner of the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique 2022

An excellent biography of Alexis de Tocqueville , the 19th-century French politician and author of Democracy in America and The Ancien Regime and the Revolution .

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

By katherine rundell.

🏆  Winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

🏆  Winner of the 2023 British Book Award for Non-Fiction: Narrative

“Rundell is a children’s author who also specializes in Renaissance literature and makes the case that Donne should be as widely feted as William Shakespeare, his contemporary. She writes, ‘Donne is the greatest writer of desire in the English language. He wrote about sex in a way that nobody ever has, before or since: he wrote sex as the great insistence on life, the salute, the bodily semaphore for the human living infinite. The word most used across his poetry, part from ‘and’ and ‘the’, is ‘love”.” Read more...

Award Winning Biographies of 2022

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine

By janice p. nimura.

✩ Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for biography

A dual biography of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, the United States' first female physicians and the founders of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, a hospital staffed entirely by women in antebellum America. Through the story of their lives, says the Wall Street Journal , we encounter "a rough-hewn, gaudy, carnival-barking America, with only the thinnest veneer of gentility overlaying cruelty and a simmering violence."

Pessoa: A Biography

By richard zenith.

The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote prolifically throughout his life, but often under a series of assumed names and identities, which he called 'heteronyms.' Relatively unknown during his lifetime, he left a cache of more than 25,000 papers which are still being studied, translated and published almost a century after his death. Here, the renowned translator and Pessoa scholar offers an insight into Pessoa's teeming imagination and polyphonous genius by tracing the back stories of his alter egos, recasting them as projections of Pessoa's inner tensions—social, sexual, and political.

Mike Nichols: A Life

By mark harris.

✩ Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle award for biography

A  New York Times- bestselling biography of the Hollywood director Mike Nichols, one of America's most prolific and versatile creative figures, by the author of Pictures at a Revolution  and  Five Came Back . Born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish family in 1930s Berlin, Nichols immigrated to the United States as a child, where his incredible drive saw him rise through the social ranks; by 35 he lived in a New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park, with a Rolls Royce, a string of Arabian horses, and a circle of friends that included Richard Burton and Jackie Kennedy. Mark Harris draws on interviews with more than 250 of Nichols' contemporaries to tells this story of a complicated man and his tumultuous career.

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America

By keisha n. blain.

✩ Nominated for the NAACP Image Award for an outstanding biography or autobiography

The historian and best-selling author Keisha N. Blain examines the life and work of the Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer, positioning her as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.

Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser

By susan bernofsky.

The first English-language biography of Robert Walser, one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century. In Clairvoyant of the Small, Susan Bernofsky—his award-winning translator—offers a diligently researched and delicately written account of his life and work, setting him in the context of 20th century European history and modernist literature.

Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II

By robert hardman.

The Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, has been on the throne for 70 years, making her the world's longest-reigning monarch other than Louis XIV of France (1643-1715: he came to the throne aged 4). Lots of events are taking place in the UK to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, including a number of new books about her life. We have an interview with royal biographer Robert Lacey on the best books about the Queen but it dates from a few years ago. Robert Hardman's Queen of Our Times came out this year and offers a detailed look at her life from birth. The book is readable, chatty almost, and a good corrective to anyone who has watched the Netflix drama The Crown , whose "questionable accuracy" Hardman points out.

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life by Alex Christofi tells the story of the great Russian novelist's life by brilliantly intertwining it with his own words, taken from where Dostoevsky's fiction is drawn from his own lived experience. And it was quite some life: amongst other ups and downs, Dostoevsky was nearly executed and spent four years in a Siberian labour camp. You can read more in our interview with Alex Christofi on the best Fyodor Dostoevsky books .

Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said

By timothy brennan.

Places of Mind is a biography of Edward Said , the Palestinian intellectual who shot to prominence with his damning critique of how Westerners write about the East, Orientalism , in 1978. The biography is written by his student and friend Timothy Brennan.

The Van Gogh Sisters

By willem-jan verlinden.

We've heard much about the crucial role that Theo van Gogh played in the life of his brother, Vincent. But Vincent also had three sisters who were a big influence on him. In fact, it was an argument with his eldest sister, Anna, that was the reason he left the Netherlands. This is their story.

Critical Lives: Hannah Arendt

By samantha rose hill.

***🏆 A Five Books Book of the Year ***

“This book is brilliant. It’s written by Samantha Rose Hill, who must know as much as anyone about Hannah Arendt. She’s dived into Arendt’s surviving papers, notebooks, and even poetry, spending many hours in the archive. And what’s so great about this as a biography is that Hill has done something that biographers rarely do—she’s been highly selective in what she’s included. As a result, we don’t get the feeling of being overwhelmed by details of an individual life but rather get to understand what really mattered.” Read more...

The Best Philosophy Books of 2021

Nigel Warburton , Philosopher

Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times

By aaron sachs.

“A biography about writing biography! Very meta, and very much in the interdisciplinary tradition of American Studies. In his gorgeous braid of cultural history, Cornell University professor Sachs entwines the lives and work of poet and fiction writer Herman Melville (1819-1891) and the philosopher and literary critic Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), illuminating their coextending concerns about their worlds in crisis. Sachs brilliantly provides the connective tissue between Melville and his biographer Mumford so that these writers seem to be in conversation with one another, both deeply affected by their dark times.” Read more...

Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century

By jennifer homans.

“It’s a biography of a man who almost walks with the 20th century, so you get all that history. Balanchine was of Georgian heritage and grew up in Tsarist Russia. Early on, he was selected to go into the Imperial Ballet School, so he’s on that track. Then, the Russian Revolution happens and everything falls into turmoil on all fronts. There’s a lot of hunger, violence, and chaos…Balanchine eventually winds up in America, where he meets well-connected benefactors and cultural managers. They feel that American ballet hadn’t yet achieved the same level of institutional high standing as Europe. They have the ambition to rectify that and are keen to use people like Balanchine and others who had come over to the US. Eventually, Balanchine sets up the New York City Ballet Company, which, in effect, becomes the country’s national ballet.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Frederick Studemann , Journalist

The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

By kerri k. greenidge.

“Greenidge, a professor at Tufts University, brings her unique, perceptive eye to African American civil rights in the North. Sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke have been exalted as brave heroines who defied antebellum Southern piety and headed northward to embrace abolition. Greenridge makes the powerful case that, in clinging to this mythology, a more troubling story is obscured. In the North, as the Grimke sisters lived comfortably and agitated for change, they enjoyed the financial benefits of their slaveholding family in South Carolina. Greenidge not only provides a revisionist history of the Grimke sisters, but she also extends the Grimke family story beyond the 19 th century.” Read more...

Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life

By clare mac cumhaill & rachael wiseman.

The story of four mid-20th century philosophers based in Oxford—Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch , Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley . With many men who typically dominated academic philosophy away fighting World War II, they were able to make their own mark, arguing for a greater place for metaphysics in philosophical discourse.

The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist , recommended by Elizabeth Taylor

G-man: j. edgar hoover and the making of the american century by beverly gage, the grimkés: the legacy of slavery in an american family by kerri k. greenidge, mr. b: george balanchine’s twentieth century by jennifer homans, metaphysical animals: how four women brought philosophy back to life by clare mac cumhaill & rachael wiseman, up from the depths: herman melville, lewis mumford, and rediscovery in dark times by aaron sachs.

Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor —chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.

Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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Historia Magazine

The magazine of the Historical Writers Association

Historical books to look out for in 2024

1 January 2024 By Frances Owen

Welcome to Historia’s most popular regular feature, our round-up of books published by members of the Historical Writers’ Association ( HWA ) to look out for during the coming year.

For 2024, there are nearly 140 books covering history, biography, and historical fiction and spanning eras from Ancient Greece and Egypt to the 1980s. They sweep around the world from St Petersburg to Mumbai, Florence to Japan, Warsaw to the Wild West, and Constantinople to the Carpathian Mountains.

We’ll be updating this list when information about new books comes in, so do come back and see what’s been added.

The year begins with three books by HWA authors on 4 January. In The Fever Box by LP Fergusson , Clara Cooper’s abusive husband is lost in action and she returns to nursing, in a military hospital. Who is the mysterious girl in the ‘fever box’? And who is haunting the opium dreams of pilot Dougie Douglas? Frightening events convince Clara that her husband has returned, and she faces a greater danger than bombs. Read our feature about the wounded men this story draws on .

In Liz Hyder ‘s  T he Illusions , out in paperback, Cecily Marsden thinks she may have unknown powers. Eadie Carleton struggles for recognition as a film-maker. Magician George Ferris wants to harness the power of moving pictures. Their worlds combine for a spectacular performance — but Cec must fight to save it from sabotage and harness the magic within her. Liz writes about  the magic-makers who inspired her book .

Also in paperback on the 4th, Para Bellum  by  Simon Turney  is set in the year 381. Kitigern, king of a powerful Gothic tribe, has sworn revenge on the legionaries who killed his brother. One of them, Flavius Focalis, seeks to warn his former comrades. By land and sea, across the Empire, the former soldiers face their enemy’s wrath. For war is coming again — and the only question is, do they die now, or later?

Griff Hosker ‘s Conquest , the second in the series with the same name, is anticipated for paperback release on 7 January. See 12 January.

Linda Stratmann returns on 12 January with Sherlock Holmes and the Duelling Dukes , book six in the Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes . In 1877 Holmes and his friend Stamford spend sporting week at a large country manor. But the guests are riven by hatreds and sinister plots — then one is discovered dead. Can Holmes and Stamford find the murderer? Will he strike again?

On same day, Griff Hosker ‘s Conquest is out as an ebook. William the Conqueror has the crown… and many enemies at home and abroad. He must subdue a land that hates the Norman yoke. The north rises against William’s rule, and Richard fitz Malet, in his manor near York, finds himself alone and isolated. He must form his people into a fighting force — or face death.

Clash of Kings is the latest in MJ Porter ‘s Brunanburh Series , published on 13 January. After the slaughter at Brunanburh in 937, Olaf Gothfrithson of the Dublin Norse and Constantin of the Scots plot revenge on Athelstan. But the English king dies and his successor, Edmund, faces the might of the Norse, Welsh and Scots. Can he banish England’s enemies once and for all, or will it, and its king, lose all that’s been gained?

Women of the Anarchy by Sharon Bennett Connolly is out on 15 January. In 1135, Stephen of Blois usurped the throne from his cousin, the Empress Matilda, sparking a 19-year civil war: the Anarchy. This is the story of two Matildas: the Empress, fighting for her birthright and her children’s, and Stephen’s wife, determined to see her own son inherit. Their strengths, weaknesses and ambitions swung the fortunes of war. Sharon has written a feature about how, and why, the conflict began .

The same day sees The Austrian Bride by Helen Parusel published. Austria in 1938, and Ella enrolls in a Reich Bride School to learn secrets she can use against the Fascist regime. A desperate race begins to save the people she loves as Europe stands on the brink of war. But if she is caught betraying the Nazis it could be her death sentence…

On 16 January Louise Fein ‘s The London Bookshop Affair is out as an ebook. In 1962 Celia Duchesne, working at a London bookshop, learns of an undercover agent connected to her whose betrayal in France in 1942 was hushed up. As she learns more she becomes increasingly aware of efforts, both past and present, to protect state secrets. Celia must risk everything she holds dear, in the name of justice.

American Wings by Elizabeth Wein and Sherri L Smith , published on the same day, follows a group of determined Black Americans who created a flying club and built their own airfield on Chicago’s South Side. As the US approached World War II they set up a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving that successful integration was possible.

JC Briggs goes Gothic on 19 January with The Legacy of Foulstone Manor . Joan Goss inherits Foulstone but, haunted by her fragmented memories of her childhood there, avoids the old house. When her niece Amanda comes to stay with her, Joan is forced to confront the secrets of her past. How did her parents die, and why was she never told the truth? Can she come to accept the inheritance she’s rejected?

Two books are out on 24 January. In The German Child by Catherine Hokin , Annaliese vows she will find the child taken from her by Nazis in 1944. In 1979, Evie investigates the stories of stolen children, including Sebastian, who she feels drawn to. But an old photo shows her that her whole life has been a devastating lie – and that her and Sebastian’s pasts are shockingly connected. Read Catherine’s feature about the terrible truth behind her story.

And The Secrets of Crestwell Hall by Alexandra Walsh slips between 1605, when Bess Throckmorton tries to stop a plot to kill the King, and the present, when Isabella Lacey finds Bess’s diary, telling a new version of the Gunpowder Plot. But when her daughter Emily’s life is suddenly in terrible danger, Isabella understands the relentless fear Bess and her friends felt. Alexandra’s feature for Historia looks more closely at Bess and the plotters’ wives.

Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull is published on 25 January. It’s Hampshire in 1795, and young Jane Austen is caught up in a murder mystery when a milliner’s body is found tucked away in a linen closet and her brother Georgy is suspected. Jane must use her sharp wits to unmask the murderer if she’s to save her beloved brother from the gallows. There’ll be a Historia feature from Jessica connected to her book.

In The Baker’s Secret by Lelita Baldock , out the same day, two sisters are forced to make an impossible choice in Nazi-occupied Latvia. To save a child, one sister must flee, while the other must stay behind. The secret of what happens stays hidden until Zenta, now a grandmother, is finally ready to set the truth free.

Æthelflæd, King Alfred’s daughter, is the best-known of the royal women of the house of Wessex. Yet many more, rich and powerful in their own right, shaped the century when England ceased to be a number of small kingdoms and became one realm. MJ Porter tells their story in The Royal Women Who Made England: The Tenth Century in Saxon England , out on 30 January. MJ looks at some of them in a Historia feature .

A Shaft of Light by WJ Small is out on 31 January. In the third of the Will Patten Thrillers , Will and his partner Clemence take refuge from Thomas Cromwell and Richard Rich in Jervaulx Abbey, where he gets involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace. But, returning to London, he’s imprisoned for his actions and faces an impossible choice: betray the leaders of the Pilgrimage to his enemies, or lose his life.

Five books are published on 1 February. To Kill a King is the eighth book in David Gilman ‘s Master of War series. In 1367 Sir Thomas Blackstone, Edward III’s Master of War, must stem the tide of support for the King of France. But the French are on the trail of Blackstone’s son Henry, riding incognito across France — and will target him to use against his father.

In Queen of Diamonds by Beezy Marsh , the third in her Queen series, it’s 1922 and Alice Diamond forms a criminal gang, the Forty Thieves, which is soon in conflict with the gang led by Kate Felix. But Alice, known as the Bob-Haired Bandit, and Kate make some powerful enemies, and Alice must sacrifice more than she ever imagined if she is to become the gangland queen.

Still on 1 February, The Low Road by Katharine Quarmby is released in audio format. Orphan Hannah Tyrell is sent to London to be trained for domestic service. There she meets Annie Simpkins, and their friendship deepens into passionate love. But when the girls are transported to Botany Bay for theft, the strength of their bond is tested. Will they ever meet again? Katharine is writing us a feature about the shocking history that inspired her book.

When Maude Horton’s sister disappears, she sets out to find answers – and get justice for her sister — in Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook . Her journey takes her to the dark side of London, and into the path of dangerous, powerful men, who profit from the city’s horrors. But they’re not the only ones who are dangerous. Maude has skills of her own…

On the same day Fyneshade by Kate Griffin is out in paperback. Marta, the new governess at Fyneshade, is drawn to Vaughan, the dangerous son of the owner, banished by his absent father. But, guided by the dark gift taught to her by her grandmother, Marta has her own plans. It will take more than a family riven by murderous secrets to stop her carrying them out… Read Kate’s selection of the top six adaptations of The Turn of the Screw , an inspiration for her bestselling novel.

It’s 1824 in Joanne Burn ‘s The Bone Hunters , published on 8 February. In Lyme Regis, Ada Winters uncovers a set of unusual fossils on the cliffs. Edwin Moyle is looking for a discovery that will place him amongst the greatest geologists of the age. And Ada seems to hold the key. But what is the creature that Ada and Edwin seek to unearth? And will it lead them to greatness, or destruction?

In The Secrets of Blythswood Square by Sara Sheridan , also on 8 February, it’s 1846 and Charlotte Nicholl discovers that her inheritance is linked to a secret collection of erotic art. She must sell it and risk shaming her family — or lose her home in a respectable Glasgow square. Her new friend, Ellory McHale, has her own secrets, and as the truth catches up with both women it may destroy them… or set them free.

Douglas Skelton ‘s Company of Rogues series returns on the same day with A Grave for a Thief . In 1716, Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – is tasked with finding Christopher Templeton, a lawyer with secrets to share with the Company. But while Flynt hunts for the missing man, someone else may be stalking him… with murder in mind.

Lilli Bergen works for the Political Warfare Executive, broadcasting British propaganda to Nazi Germany, in The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift , out in ebook format on 13 February. But when her ex-boyfriend, Bren Murphy, appears at her workplace, Lilli, who suspects he’s a Nazi sympathiser, must find out the truth in order to expose him.

The same day sees two books by Clare Flynn . In The Artist’s Apprentice it’s England in 1908. When Alice Dalton’s father tries to arrange her marriage to Edmund Cutler she runs away, determined to lead an independent life. She’s apprenticed a stained-glass artist — but is stunned to discover she’ll be working for Edmund. He, too, has turned his back on his family and followed his passion for art — at a terrible cost.

It’s July, 1914, in The Artist’s Wife . Looming war threatens Alice and Edmund’s hard-won happiness. Her shaky reconciliation with her brother Victor ends when he enlists. Meanwhile Edmund is torn between duty to his country, his moral compass, and protecting Alice from his powerful father, who could destroy their lives. Alice must fight to hold on to everything she holds dear.

Six books are published on 15 February, including The Wartime Book Club by Kate Tho mpson . In Jersey in 1943, Nazi occupiers order Grace La Mottée, the island’s librarian, to destroy forbidden books. But she hides them and, with postwoman Bea Rose, forms a wartime book club, offering islanders the escapism of reading. Then, as tensions turn to violence, the women face the true, terrible cost of resistance. Kate has written us a feature about the bravery of people during the occupation of Jersey .

The other ive are paperback editions of published books. A Time to Live by Vanessa de Haan sweeps from the smoking battlefields of France to the rich estates of Devon, from workers’ unrest to financial crashes, from suffragettes to political extremists. This is a story of legacy and scars, of the price of change, the price of family. Vanessa writes about how her boots-on-the-ground research succeeded when archives let her down .

In The Hidden Years by Rachel Hore it’s 1939 and Imogen Lockhart finds being school matron at Penmartin House is complicated. In 1966, Belle Patterson moves to the commune at Penmartin to follow her love — and because of a photo of herself as a baby. As conflicts arise at the commune, Belle has to face difficult truths — and learns how her life and Imogen’s are linked.

Cesare Aldo returns in DV Bishop ‘s Ritual of Fire in paperback on the same day. In 1538, when a wealthy merchant is found hanged and set on fire, Florence is shaken by memories of Savonarola 40 years before. With Aldo hunting thieves in the Tuscan hills, Constable Strocchi is left to investigate this and other ritual killings. The rich flee to the countryside — but the hills can also hide murderers. Read the first chapter of this historical thriller in Historia .

In Andrew Taylor ‘s The Shadows of London , also out in paperback, the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. A body is discovered in the ruins, and architect Cat Hakesby must stop her restoration work. When Lord Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham take an interest in James Marwood’s murder investigation, he suspects the trail may lead to the heart of government. Read Andrew’s portrait of Louise de Keroualle , Charles II’s mistress and a character in his book.

Finally on 15 February, The Shadow Network by Deborah Swift is released as a paperback; see 13 February for details.

The Golden Hour by Jacquie Bloese is out on 22 February. In late-Victorian Brighton, twins Ellen and Reynold Harper are portrait photographers by day, but at the golden hour they switch to erotic tableaux. Ellen is torn between loyalty to Reynold, her attraction to new model Lily, and her friend, unhappy wife Clem. The three women learn that the line between the promise of freedom and the threat of ruin is all too thin…

Also on the 22nd, Sharp Scratch by Martine Bailey is set in Salford in 1983. Lorraine Quick is a single mum, a member of a failing band, and personnel officer at the Memorial Hospital. Thanks to her training in psychometric testing, Lorraine will be pivotal in selecting a new general manager; but when a killer strikes at the hospital, she must use her skills to find the murderer among the job’s candidates.

Griff Hosker ‘s Horse and Pistol , on the same day, is the first in his English Mercenary series. Newly orphaned, James Bretherton falls in with two English mercenaries and begins a new life as a soldier. But this is no local spat; it’s a religious war between Catholics and Protestants and it engulfs much of 17th-century Europe. We know it as The Thirty Years’ War.

On 28 February Jill Culiner ‘s Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain examines how all that was familiar in Hungary’s Great Plain – traditional music, centuries-old customs and local architecture – was disappearing, while reassurance came in the political promises of an authoritarian populist leader and a violent hatred of those eternal scapegoats: the Roma, and the (largely vanished) rural Jewish community.

Four books are published on 29 February. A Court of Betrayal by Anne O’Brien is the story of the heiress Johane de Geneville, married to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, in 1301. Her husband deposes Edward II and rules England alongside Queen Isabella. When Roger is accused of treason, she is robbed of her freedom and must fight for justice — with her life, and her children’s, hanging in the balance.

Next is Secrets of Malta by Cecily Blench . In Malta in 1943 Margarita, a singer, has broken off her affair with Henry Dunn. His wife, Vera, informs her that Henry has disappeared, presumed dead, and Margarita tries to find out more. Is the notorious spy Nero involved? An unlikely bond develops between the two women as they seek to unmask Nero before his deadly plan threatens the course of the war.

Katie Lumsden ‘s The Secrets of Hartwood Hall , shortlisted for the 2023 Debut Crown Award , gets its paperback release on the same day. In 1852 Margaret Lennox takes a job as governess at Hartwood Hall, hoping to escape her past. She likes her pupil, Louis, but there’s something odd about the house — and about Louis’s mother. Has everyone got something to hide? As her own secret pursues her, she must trust her instincts to survive. Katie’s written about her love of, and inspiration by, Victorian literature .

And finally, Louise Fein ‘s The London Bookshop Affair is out in paperback; see 16 January for details.

Donovan Cook ‘s Charlemagne’s Cross series returns on 1 March with Thor’s Revenge . As chaos reigns in a kingless Denmark, Sven goes home to find Ribe sacked and his grandson, Charles, kidnapped. Others want revenge for the chaos Sven has caused and he must stand in the shield wall once more if he is to survive and rescue his grandson. It seems only the gods can help Sven and Charles…

Requiem of Revenge by Richard Kurti is out as an ebook on the same day. After the Chevalier John Taylor, an esteemed surgeon, is blinded and left for dead, Doctor Erasmus Harvey examines his wife, Lady Arabella, who shows no remorse. Is she insane? But her testimony reveals the truth not only behind the crimes inflicted on the chevalier, but also the death of the celebrated composer JS Bach.

A new Nicola Cornick book, The Other Gwyn Girl , is published on 7 March. It’s 1671, and Nell Gwyn is Charles II’s favourite mistress. But her sister, Rose, married to a highwayman, is in prison and needs Nell’s help to get out. Nell needs Rose’s help, too, after a plot to steal the Crown Jewels goes wrong. Nell’s position is at risk, and if Rose can’t solve the riddle of the jewels they will both end up in the Tower.

Blood Roses , the first in Douglas Jackson ‘s Warsaw Quartet , hits the shelves the same day. In Warsaw in 1939 former chief investigator Jan Kalisz is forced to work with the occupiers even as he gathers information for the resistance. When the niece of a Wehrmacht general is killed, Jan links the murder to other killings. But, shunned as a Nazi collaborator, can he solve the case before another girl is taken?

The ebook of The Romanov Brides by Clare McHugh is out on 12 March. When Ella of Hesse marries the Tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge, her sister Alix falls for the Russian heir, Nicholas. Their decisions to marry into the Romanov family will lead to tragic consequences, not only for themselves and their families but for millions in Russia — and around the world.

Also on 12 March, The Last Viking brings MJ Porter ‘s England: The First Viking Age series to a close. King Coelwulf has captured Jarl Guthrum. But Guthrum is not the only Viking raider who wishes to subdue Mercia. Coelwulf and his allies, grief-stricken after the terrible events in Grantabridge, must still fight for her survival.

14 March sees the publication of No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby . Violet Hamilton doesn’t want to marry. She wants to work and make her own way in the world — but more than anything she wants to find her missing mother. It’s no job for a lady. But when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.

The paperback edition of Vaseem Khan ‘s Death of a Lesser God , the fourth in his Malabar House series, is out on the same day. Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police and Archie Blackfinch investigate the murder of the activist Farid Mazumdar. She uncovers a possible link to the murder of an African-American GI in 1946. But if the man sentenced to death for Mazumdar’s murder didn’t kill him, who did? Read Vaseem’s related feature on why Kipling despised Bombay .

The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola is out on 21 March. Rome in 1659, and prosecutor Stefano Bracchi investigates a suspicious number of deaths. Girolama and her friends are midwives and fortune-tellers. And a young wife, Anna, hopes to escape her abusive husband. Stefano’s investigation introduces him to horror, magic and unusual characters and he wonders if certain deeds should remain forever unpunished.

On the same day, the paperback of The Barbarian by Douglas Jackson hits the shelves. It’s 406AD and Marcus Flavius Victor must leave Britannia and seek safety with an old friend — only to be caught up in an Ostrogoth uprising. Fighting their way through the dark heart of barbarism, and dogged by Marcus’s vengeful son, they stumble on a secret that could save Rome.

Five books come out on 28 March. In Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson matchmaker Martha hopes unromantic April McVey will breathe fresh air into her struggling 1930s business. When lonely widower Fabian arrives at the bureau, the pair’s matchmaking skills – and professionalism – meet their first true test.

The Red Hollow is Natalie Marlow ‘s second William Garrett novel. When William Garrett and Phyll Hall are called in to uncover the identity of the intruder ‘mermaid’ at Red Hollow sanatorium they become trapped in a world of madness, the occult, and grisly murder. William must use all his strength to differentiate between the real-life monster at Red Hollow Hall and the monsters of the mind.

Three more are paperbacks. In Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle Artemisia Gentileschi works hard to become a great artist. Her new tutor, Tassi, represents everything that a life of freedom might give — until the violent act that threatens Artemisia’s honour. In the eyes of her family, she should accept her fate. In the eyes of the law, she is the villain. But Artemisia is a survivor. And this is her story to tell.

Red’s fortune telling, using the Square of Sevens method, delights Georgian Bath in The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson . But she is tormented by questions: who was her mother? How did she die? And who were her father’s mysterious enemies? Her search for answers takes her around England, mingling in high and low society — and puts her in grave danger.

Finally on 28 March there’s The Romanov Brides by Clare McHugh ; see 12 March for details.

The Sword of Cnut by Griff Hosker comes to ebook readers on 29 March. Sven Saxon Sword is now a lord, and thinks his service to King Cnut — now he’s helped him gain the crown — is over. He’s wrong. Now he has to deal with Norse raiders and to serve in a war against the Swedes. The Oathsword is called upon again to save not only King Cnut and his ambitions, but also his home. Griff’s written us a feature about his impressive career as a writer of historical fiction .

Over two evenings in March 1912, more than 250 women, aged 19 to 79, were arrested and charged with smashing shop and office windows across London. Secret Missions of the Suffragettes by Jennifer Godfrey , out on 30 March, examines these evenings and explores the secrets of the WSPU women’s movement — safe houses, self-defence training, disguises — and the stories of the women themselves.

The month begins with Strike Up the Band: New York City in the Roaring Twenties by Jules Stewart and Helen Crisp on 1 April. The 1920s saw almost unprecedented prosperity and economic expansion that made New York the powerhouse of America. This book looks at the city’s outstanding personalities, from literary figures to sports stars, musicians, composers and journalists, and visits the places they frequented.

On 4 April there are four books by HWA authors. It’s 1959 and time for 18-year-old Sophie’s life to start in Bonjour, Sophie by Elizabeth Buchan . She dreams of escape to Paris, the wartime home her mother fled before her birth, hoping to discover more about her family and, perhaps, to find a place where she can finally belong. But the real Paris is both everything she imagined, and not at all what she expected…

The Skeleton Army is the second in Alis Hawkins ‘s Oxford Mysteries. When a Salvation Army soldier is killed, their shadowy enemy, the Skeleton Army, claims responsibility. Non Vaughan, aspiring journalist, and Basil Rice, Jesus College fellow, are compelled to investigate. But as threats and violence escalate, Non and Basil must stop the fighting before the city is engulfed in fire and blood.

The sixth of MJ Porter ‘s Eagle of Mercia Chronicles , Enemies of Mercia , sees Wiglaf of Mercia send Icel into the heartland of enemy-held Wessex to discover who is conspiring against his throne. Surrounded by deceit and lies, Icel must fight to discover the truth whilst keeping himself and his allies safe from Mercia’s — and their — enemies.

And in The Devil to Pay by Katie Daysh , it’s 1802 and Arthur Courtney hopes to spend a blissful summer with Hiram Nightingale. But when a ship carrying diplomats disappears, the pair join the search and, as their mission grows more dangerous, the truth of Courtney and Nightingale’s powerful bond could be the spark that sets everything ablaze on board.

Four books are published on 11 April. Tim Hodkinson ‘s Sword of the War God is set in the 5th century. The Huns, led by Attila, are Rome’s deadliest enemies, undefeated in conventional warfare. Attila seeks the Burgundars’ lost treasure, the War God’s sword, said to make the bearer unbeatable. Can a one-eyed old warlord from distant lands and his strange band of warriors save Rome? One thing is sure: blood will flow… Tim is writing a piece for Historia.

In The Shadow Key by Susan Stokes-Chapman physician Henry Talbot is out of place in Meirionydd in 1783; he can’t speak Welsh and the superstitious locals distrust him. Linette Tresilian of Plas Helyg feels something is not right in the village. When Henry investigates his predecessor’s disappearance, the truth about her family is revealed, binding her and Henry’s destinies together.

The Household is Stacey Halls ‘s new novel. In 1847 Urania Cottage offers refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and destitute women. But do they want it? In Piccadilly, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, a benefactor of Urania Cottage, discovers that her stalker has been released from prison. As the women’s worlds collide, they discover that freedom always comes at a price.

Still on 11 April, Julie Owen Moylan ‘s 73 Dove Street is out in paperback. When Edie Budd arrives at a shabby boarding house in 1958, it’s clear she’s hiding a terrible secret. Tommie has an addiction to seedy Soho nightlife — and a man she can’t quit. Landlady Phyllis also keeps quiet about her past. But when Edie’s past catches up with her the women’s lives change forever.

The Rooster: Discovering My Father’s Memories from the Jasenovac Concentration Camp by Sibel Roller is the story of a father seen through his daughter’s memories of him. It contains the manuscript left by her father, Dragan; a personal learning experience about a part of her father that she never knew, and a tale of survival, resilience and humanity. It comes out on 16 April.

Katherine Mezzacappa ‘s The Maiden of Florence is published on 18 April. Giulia is chosen to end rumours of a prince’s virility in 1584 — in return for her life and a dowry. Years later, with her own family, she hopes she has escaped her past. But when a sinister figure from her youth reappears, she must finally take control of events and shape her own future.

Rob McInroy ‘s Moot is out on 24 April. In July 1939, 3,500 young men from around the world arrive at Monzie Castle, outside Crieff, for the third International Rover Scout Moot. Bob Kelty finds the badly-burned body of a man in a tent outside the Moot campsite, but the authorities are strangely reluctant to investigate and it’s up to Rob to find the truth. We’ll add more details when they’re available.

Daniel Pursglove is back on 25 April in A Plague of Serpents by KJ Maitland . Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King’s enemies prepare to strike again and Daniel must infiltrate the Serpents — a secret group of Catholics — or risk his own execution. Then Daniel spots a familiar face among their number. Can he escape the web of treason he is ensnared in? Or has his luck finally run out?

On the same day, The Walled Garden by Sarah Hardy is out in paperback. In 1946 everyone in the village of Oakbourne is scarred by their wartime experiences. Lonely and afraid of the man her husband has become, Alice Rayne tries to save her marriage — and Oakbourne Hall — from collapse. As she works on the walled garden she finds herself drawn into a new, forbidden love. Sarah’s novel was longlisted for the 2023 Gold Crown Award .

In Revenge of the Tyrants by LA Kristiansen , out on 29 April, it’s 1306 and, as the King of Scots wages a desperate, bloody war for Scotland’s independence, four Scottish knights journey to the heart of the conflict. Meanwhile, the Kings of England, France, and Norway plot to become the dominant force in Europe — and to thwart the Scots. The fight for the nation’s soul has begun.

The Icarus Ascent: Ghosts of the Matterhorn by Mike Lewis will be published in April. It’s the story of the tragic first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 as seen through the eyes of Edward Whymper’s seven-man party — from beyond the grave.

We’re also expecting The Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston in April.

And Sun Ascendant by CF Dunn , the second in her Wars of the Roses series,  The Tarnished Crown , will be out this month.

Sonia Velton returns to historical fiction with The Nightingale’s Castle on 2 May. Boróka is a servant at Cachtice Castle near the Carpathians. There are rumours that Countess Erzsébet Báthory murders young girls. Still, a tentative bond forms between the two women. But Erzsébet’s wealth poses a threat to the King. When a show trial begins against the infamous ‘Blood Countess’ where will Boróka’s loyalties lie? Sonia is writing about the real Countess Báthory for Historia.

On the same day A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra sees amateur sleuth Kaveri Murthy investigating a crime when she and Ramu become tangled in a web of intrigue endangering the life of Edward, Prince of Wales, during his visit to Bangalore in 1921 amid the growing rumblings of Indian independence and the backdrop of female emancipation. We’ll have a feature from Harini about the background to her latest Bangalore Detectives Club mystery.

Still on 2 May comes Birds of Prey by Damion Hunter . In west Britannia, the powerful Silures plot rebellion against the diminished strength of the Romans. Centurion Faustus Valerianus, whose mother was a Silure, finds himself trapped between loyalty to the army and compassion for his people. With a great, final conflict ahead, he must confront the demons that haunt him and come to terms with his position.

Eight books by HWA authors are published on 9 May. 1217: The Battles That Saved England by Catherine Hanley charts the tumultuous events that strengthened England’s national identity. With the child Henry III now King under William Marshall’s regency and the French Prince Louis’s invasion losing support, the fortress of Dover was besieged, the city of Lincoln was attacked, and a great invasion force was stopped at sea. Catherine’s feature about the conflict will be in Historia.

Daniel Smith ‘s The Men Who Were Sherlock Holmes In 1893 a murder at the Ardlamont estate in Scotland triggered one of Victorian Britain’s most gripping court cases and brought together two pioneering forensic experts, Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn, the models for Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes . The worlds of crime fiction and crime fact were about to collide… Dan is writing about this extraordinary incident for us.

The other six books on 9 May are paperback releases of books already out in other formats. Richard Sharpe is back in Bernard Cornwell ‘s Sharpe’s Command . Captain Sharpe is sent behind enemy lines to a small village in the Spanish countryside. Two French armies march towards it, and if they meet, the British are lost. Only Sharpe’s small group of men stand in their way. But they’re outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and time is running out.

In The Winter List SG MacLean returns to the world of Damian Seeker. It’s 1660 and the monarchy is restored. Some seek revenge on his enemies, named on a list; Lady Anne Winter has to find evidence of their guilt or innocence. Seeker’s daughter Manon is married and living in York — but she’s a conduit to her father and to others on the list. Who can she trust, and how long can she avoid discovery? Read Historia’s interview with SG MacLean .

Still on 9 May, The Temple of Fortuna is the last in Elodie Harper ‘s Wolf Den trilogy. In AD79, Amara, now a wealthy freedwoman in Rome, is caught up in the political scheming of the Imperial palace. Her daughter remains in Pompeii, raised by the only man Amara ever loved — and both are safest while she is far away. But, in the shadow of Vesuvius, how safe are they truly? Elodie will have a feature for us to coincide with publication.

In A Day of Reckoning , the third in Matthew Harffy ‘s A Time for Swords series, it’s 796 and Hunlaf and his comrades are searching for an object of great power in the Emirate of Al-Andalus. In the city of Qadis friends and enemies alike are not always what they seem — and a weapon there, deadlier than any ever known before, could change the future of all the kingdoms in Europe. Matthew’s written about Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, for Historia .

The Treason of Sparta by Christian Cameron is the seventh in his The Long War series. It’s 478BC. After defeating Persia in the Battle of Plataea, Athens and Sparta begin to bicker over dividing the spoils. Arimnestos, sailing past the Persian-held coasts, finds that the enemy is still not beaten… and that old alliances are now fraying. Who will save the cities of Ionia from the Great King’s wrath?

Our final book for 9 May is The Burnings by Naomi Kelsey . When the marriage of King James VI and Princess Anna of Denmark in 1589 brings Scottish housemaid Geillis and Danish courtier Margareta together, they ask — is black magic real? As the North Berwick witch trials mount into a frenzy of paranoia, can the women keep each other safe? And after the burnings are over, who will truly hold power? Read Naomi’s feature about a bizarre episode in the witch trials . Naomi won the 2021 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition .

Clare Mulley ‘s Agent Zo , out on 16 May, is the story of Elzbieta Zawacka, the WWII female resistance fighter called Agent Zo, the only woman to reach London from Warsaw as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command. In Britain she became the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces. In Nazi-occupied Poland, hunted by the Gestapo, she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland. Clare will have a feature for us about this remarkable woman.

On the same day The Pyramid Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith , the latest in her Miss Clara Vale Mysteries , comes out as an ebook. An ancient Egyptian mummy donated to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle turns out to be a recent victim of murder. Clara goes to Cairo in February 1930 to solve the mystery. It’ll be in paperback, too, but there isn’t a link yet. Fiona is writing us a feature about using antique travel guides to research her book.

Return to Shiaba by Willie Orr, the second in his Leaving the Land series, is released on 21 May.

Also on 21 May, An Assassination on the Agenda , TE Kinsey ‘s new Lady Hardcastle Mystery , sees Lady Hardcastle and her lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, investigating the link between a Bristol killing and an impending visit to London from an Austrian trade delegation with an important guest. They face sceptical bureaucrats and Cockney gangsters to foil an explosive — and internationally significant — threat.

Ben Kane ‘s Stormcrow is published on 23 May, the first of a new Viking series. Young Finn, called Stormcrow, raids the Irish coast in a Norse longship, seeking not just riches but vengeance for his murdered father. When he meets the new wife of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King of Norse Dyflin, his life changes and he is once more in deadly danger.

Other books expected this month include a new edition of Elizabeth Fremantle’s 2014 novel Queen’s Gambit, retitled Firebrand to coincide with the release of the film of the same name based on her novel about Katherine Parr. We’re also looking forward to Sarah Siddons , Jo Willett’s biography of the first celebrity actress.

Seven books hit the shelves on 6 June. In Arthur by Giles Kristian the Saxons are now lords of Britain. Old Beran, now a mercenary, is ordered to murder a boy, King Ambrosius’s grandson and Britain’s only hope — if he lives. Instead, Beran vows to deliver the boy to Camelot, which still holds out against the Saxons. He and his band face many enemies in their journey. But returning to Camelot means Beran must also face his own past…

It’s 1710 in AJ West ‘s The Betrayal of Thomas True and Thomas is drawn into the underworld of London’s molly houses. Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the mollies’ guard, and a carpenter. But being gay can get you hanged, and someone is betraying the mollies’ secrets. Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before it’s too late? Can he save hapless Thomas… and their own impossible love?

In 1952 Sir Jack Drummond, his wife and their daughter were found murdered in France. The Drummond Affair: Murder and Mystery in Provence by Daniel Smith and Stephanie Matthews strips away prejudice and propaganda to reveal a grave miscarriage of justice. A light is shone on Drummond’s secret life, recasting one of the 20th century’s most notorious murders in a fascinating and important new light.

Every Spy A Traitor is the first in Alex Gerlis ‘s new Double Agent series. In 1937, as Europe heads towards war, British spymasters know there is one Soviet agent in their ranks, codenamed Agent Archie. What they don’t know is that he is not the only traitor. And the life of Charles Cooper, a young British writer travelling Europe to research his novel, is about to change for ever. It’s out on 6 June.

The Fascination by Essie Fox is out in paperback on the same day. Twins Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical, except Tilly hasn’t grown since she was five. Sold at 15, the girls are taken to London where Tilly becomes a pantomime star. Theo works at an anatomy museum filled with freaks. All three are caught in a web of obsession and deceit, endangering Tilly’s life and exposing them all to the horrors of their pasts.

Another paperback, Battle Song , is the first of a new medieval trilogy by Ian Ross . Adam de Norton, a chivalrous young squire, and his devilish master, Sir Robert de Dunstanville, must choose a side in a battle that will decide the fate of the kingdom. Will they fight for King Henry III, for Simon de Montfort and the rebellious barons — or for themselves? Read our review of Ian’s book from Carol McGrath.

Finally on 6 June, and also in paperback, The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson is set in 1950s Morocco. Hamou Badi has a deep desire for order and justice; he trains as an officer of the law, working for the French in Casablanca. But the city is trapped in the turmoil of the nationalist uprising, and soon he will be forced to choose between all he knows — and all he loves.

It’s 1681 in London in The Bedlam Cadaver by Robert J Lloyd , out on 11 June. When a wealthy merchant’s daughter is kidnapped and murdered King Charles orders Harry Hunt of the Royal Society to investigate. Then Elizabeth Thynne, England’s richest heiress, disappears. Her husband has a ransom letter from the same kidnappers. Harry finds a disturbing link to Bethlehem Hospital, better known as Bedlam. Rob’s writing us a feature.

On the same day Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration by Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman is released. It explores the methods spies used in the Early Modern period, including disguises, invisible inks, and poisons, and shows how the innovations of petty criminals, secretaries, and other hitherto invisible actors shaped the fate of some of history’s most iconic figures

Maggie Craig ‘s We’re Come to See the King: George IV in Edinburgh is released as an ebook on 13 June. When George IV visited Edinburgh in August 1822, the visit, stage-managed by Sir Walter Scott, included parades, processions, banquets and balls — and tartan. Self-indulgent and spendthrift, George was unpopular; yet tens of thousands, rich and poor, lined the streets in hope of glimpsing him. Read more about this extraordinary episode in Maggie’s Historia feature .

Heroines of the Tudor Age by Sharon Bennett Connolly , out on 15 June, tells the stories of the most remarkable women from European history in the time of the Tudor dynasty, 1485-1603.

Cesare Aldo, demoted to night patrol, discovers the corpse of a man, posed as if crucified in DV Bishop ‘s A Divine Fury , published on 20 June. It’s clear to Aldo that the killer had religious motives. When more bodies appear, Aldo believes an unholy murderer is stalking the citizens of Florence. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike again…

On the same day The Thistle and the Rose profiles Margaret, the first Tudor princess, Queen Consort and Queen Regent of Scotland. The forgotten Tudor — who led a life of great drama, of privilege and pain, of personal danger, hardship and loss. Linda Porter ‘s biography reveals a true dynast with considerable diplomatic skills, as well as a loving mother to James V after his father’s death at Flodden.

A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk is out on 4 July. A celebrated writer, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has never let society’s limits stifle her. But she wants more. When her husband becomes ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Mary finds the autonomous life she dreams of. And when she sees Turkish women ‘engrafting’ children against smallpox, she resolves to bring the miracle cure back to England.

Matthew Harffy lights out for 1890s Oregon in Dark Frontier . Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes, longing for peace and meaning, heads to the American West — but finds as much violence there as he met with in the army in Afghanistan and in the Met Police. Can he escape his past and the demons that drive him to find a place for himself on the far edge of the New World? It’s also published on 4 July, as is:

The Paris Muse by Louisa Treger . Paris, 1936. Dora Maar is Picasso’s lover — and a talented photographer, painter and poet. Their turbulent, sometimes sado-masochistic affair and his infidelities cause her torment, while he agonises over the Spanish Civil War. As darkness suffocates their relationship and the Second World War breaks out, Dora has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalised.

Queen Cleopatra is a new collection of writing about the last Pharaoh of Egypt, introduced and edited by Lindsay Powell . It shows her to be an astute, resilient leader who survived at a time of male domination, as well as the lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. Publication day is 9 July.

Annie Garthwaite ‘s The King’s Mother , the follow-up to Cecily , will be on the shelves on 11 July. It’s 1461, and Cecily’s son Edward IV has gained England’s throne. But can he keep it? As brother betrays brother, and trusted cousins turn treacherous, other mothers rise up to fight for other sons. Cecily must focus her will to defeat every challenge, for there can be only one King, and only one King’s Mother.

In The Trouble with Mrs Montgomery Hurst by Katie Lumsden , out on 18 July, Mr Montgomery Hurst of Radcliffe Park is getting married — to an impoverished widow with three children. Society is appalled and intrigued, including Mr Ashpoint, who had hoped his daughter, Amelia, would be the bride. Amelia, though, has no interest in marrying at all. It seems Mr Hurst’s business is everyone’s but his own…

On the same day The Lost Queen by Carol McGrath takes us to 1191 with Richard the Lionheart. Eleanor of Aquitaine and his bride, Princess Berengaria of Navarre, make a perilous journey over the Alps in midwinter to met him in Sicily. England needs an heir. But first, Richard and his new Queen must return home. For Berengaria, it’s a story of survival, friendship and enduring love.

Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers by Andrea Zuvich is out on 30 July. Barbara Villiers was beautiful, magnetic and sexually attractive, the muse of artists such as Peter Lely and of writers like John Dryden. She had a tempestuous and passionate relationship with Charles II for most of a decade. Barbara had an insatiable appetite for life, love, riches, amusement, and power: in short, she was ravenous.

July also sees The Night in Venice by AJ Martin . It’s set in summer 1911. Monica, a 14-year-old English girl, may, or may not, have killed her guardian at the start of a holiday in Venice.

Other books due this month include Angela Buckley ‘s The Bermondsey Murder: Scotland Yard’s First Great Challenge and Dickens’ Inspiration and Chain Reactions: The Hopeful History of Uranium by Lucy Jane Santos .

In Paris in 1940, Detective Eddie Giral is no longer just catching criminals; he’s working for them. When a German trader dies, the authorities decide innocent civilians will pay the price — unless Eddie can find the killer in time. As hunger grows, tensions rise, and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie must do whatever it takes to live with the enemy… and with himself. Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd is out on 15 August.

Scandalous Women by Gill Paul is out on 29 August. It’s 1966, and Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins both have racy novels published. But being women who write about sex has a price. Nancy White works at a Manhattan publishing house, where she’s responsible for the two authors meeting. Will the Jackies clash as they race to top the charts? Will Nancy become an editor, despite the men holding her back?

Polly Crosby ‘s new novel, The House of Fever , is expected this month.

Circus of Mirrors is the next book from Julie Owen Moylan , out on 12 September. In Berlin in 1926, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other. When Leni finds work at the notorious Babylon Circus cabaret she hides in the shadows — until she meets the pianist, Paul. 20 years later, the cabaret in ruins, the sisters have a new mouth to feed and Paul has vanished. But one of them has a secret. And it must come to light.

This month we’re also looking forward to Naples 1944 (working title) by Keith Lowe , Midnight In Vienna by Jane Thynne and a new Hawker book from Ethan Bale .

There will also be a sixth Frank Merlin historical crime novel by Mark Ellis in September or October.

The first book in TE Kinsey ‘s new Fanshaw & Foster series, a spin-off from his his Lady Hardcastle murder mysteries, will be published this month.

The Little Book of Hertfordshire , an introduction to local history in the county by Ruth Herman , is expected in October or November.

Lesley Downer ‘s The Shortest History of Japan will be out in late Autumn.

The Liberation of Strasbourg (working title) by Paul StJohn Mackintosh is likely to be published on 23 November.

And we’re hoping for a new instalment in Fiona Veitch Smith ‘s Miss Clara Vale Mysteries .

Helen’s Judgement , the second in the House of Atreus series by by Susan C Wilson , is anticipated this month. Haunted by her decision to leave her child behind when she flees her unhappy marriage, Helen tries to build a new life in Troy with her lover. But her husband pursues her – and he brings an army…

Also in December, in The King of Montréal by Daniela Norris , Louis-Charles is only 15 in 1800. He has just escaped France, but the ship he’s on sinks and Charles is saved by Basque fishermen, ending up at the port of Montréal. He is left there to fend for himself. Louis-Charles has a heavy secret to bear, however. He may not be the King of Montréal, but he is Louis XVII, lost king of France.

And Lesley Downer tells us that her On the Narrow Road to the Deep North will be reissued at the end of the year.

The War for the Heart of the World by Edoardo Albert is to be published this year, but there are no further details yet.

If you’ve got this far, thank you! I hope you’ve found something you’d like to read this year.

And if you see a book you’d like to buy, or persuade your library to get, please consider ordering it before the publication day. That will mean you read it as soon as it’s out — and it also gives the author a sales boost on their first day, which, along with reviewing their book, is an excellent way to show your appreciation.

This page will be regularly updated as more information comes in, so do come back and have another look.

And you can keep up with new books as they’re published by checking Historia’s Latest releases column.

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The Best Books of 2021

This Year's Must-Reads

The Ten Best History Books of 2021

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how the U.S. got to where it is today

Meilan Solly

Associate Editor, History

After 2020 brought the most devastating global pandemic in a century and a national reckoning with systemic racism , 2021 ushered in a number of welcome developments, including Covid vaccines , the return of beloved social traditions like the Olympics and public performances , and incremental but measurable progress in the fight   against racial injustice . 

During this year of change, these ten titles collectively serve a dual purpose. Some offer a respite from reality, transporting readers to such varied locales as ancient Rome, Gilded Age America and Angkor in Cambodia. Others reflect on the fraught nature of the current moment, detailing how the nation’s past—including the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II and police brutality—informs its present and future. From a chronicle of civilization told through clocks to a quest for Indigenous justice in colonial Pennsylvania, these were some of our favorite history books of 2021.

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

“It’s terrifying to realize that most of humanity lives in places that are destined to die,” writes Annalee Newitz in the opening pages of Four Lost Cities . This stark statement sets the stage for the journalist’s incisive exploration of how cities collapse—a topic with clear ramifications for the “global-warming present,” as Kirkus notes in its review of the book. Centered on the ancient metropolises of Çatalhöyük , a Neolithic settlement in southern Anatolia; Pompeii , the Roman city razed by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 C.E.; Angkor , the medieval Cambodian capital of the Khmer Empire; and Cahokia , a pre-Hispanic metropolis in what is now Illinois, Four Lost Cities traces its subjects’ successes and failures, underscoring surprising connections between these ostensibly disparate societies. 

All four cities boasted sophisticated infrastructure systems and ingenious feats of engineering. Angkor, for instance, became an economic powerhouse in large part due to its complex network of canals and reservoirs, while Cahokia was known for its towering earthen pyramids , which locals imbued with spiritual significance. Despite these innovations, the featured urban hubs eventually succumbed to what Newitz describes as “prolonged periods of political instability”—often precipitated by poor leadership and social hierarchies—“coupled with environmental collapse.” These same problems plague modern cities, the writer argues, but the past offers valuable lessons for preventing such disasters in the future, including investing in “resilient infrastructure, … public plazas, domestic spaces for everyone, social mobility and leaders who treat the city’s workers with dignity.”

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history―and figure out why people abandoned them

Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace

In the winter of 1722, two white fur traders murdered Seneca hunter Sawantaeny after he refused their drunken, underhanded attempts to strike a deal. The ensuing furor, writes historian Nicole Eustace in Covered With Night , threatened to spark outright war between English colonists and the Indigenous inhabitants of the mid-Atlantic. Rather than enter into a prolonged, bloody battle, the Susquehanna River valley’s Native peoples forged an agreement, welcoming white traders back into their villages once Sawantaeny’s body had been metaphorically “covered,” or laid to rest in a “respectful, ritualized way,” as Eustace told Smithsonian magazine’ s Karin Wulf earlier this year.

“Native people believe that a crisis of murder makes a rupture in the community and that rupture needs to be repaired,” Eustace added. “They are not focused on vengeance; they are focused on repair, on rebuilding community. And that requires a variety of actions. They want emotional reconciliation. They want economic restitution.”

The months of negotiation that followed culminated in the Albany Treaty of 1722 , which provided both “ritual condolences and reparation payments” for Sawantaeny’s murder, according to Eustace. Little known today, the historian argues, the agreement underscores the differences between Native and colonial conceptions of justice. Whereas the former emphasized what would now be considered restorative justice (an approach that seeks to repair harm caused by a crime), the latter focused on harsh reprisal, meting out swift executions for suspects found guilty. “The Pennsylvania colonists never really say explicitly, ‘We’re following Native protocols. We’re accepting the precepts of Native justice,’” Eustace explained to Smithsonian . “But they do it because in practical terms they didn’t have a choice if they wanted to resolve the situation.”

Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America

An immersive tale of the killing of a Native American man and its far-reaching implications for the definition of justice from early America to today

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

The Sackler family’s role in triggering the U.S. opioid epidemic attracted renewed attention this year with the release of “ Dopesick ,” a Hulu miniseries based on Beth Macy’s 2018 book of the same name , and Patrick Radden Keefe ’s award-winning Empire of Pain , which exhaustively examines the rise—and very public fall—of the drug-peddling American “dynasty.” 

Meticulously researched, the book traces its roots to the early 2010s, when the journalist was reporting on Mexican drug cartels for the New York Times magazine . As Keefe tells the London Times , he realized that 25 percent of the revenue generated by OxyContin, the most popular pill pushed by Sackler-owned Purdue Pharma, came from the black market. Despite this trend, the family was better known for its donations to leading art museums than its part in fueling opioid addiction. “There was a family that had made billions of dollars from the sale of a drug that had such a destructive legacy,” Keefe says, “yet hadn’t seemed touched by that legacy.” Infuriated, he began writing what would become Empire of Pain .

The resulting 560-page exposé draws on newly released court documents, interviews with more than 200 people and the author’s personal accounts of the Sacklers’ attempts to intimidate him into silence. As the New York Times notes in its review, the book “paint[s] a devastating portrait of a family consumed by greed and unwilling to take the slightest responsibility or show the least sympathy for what it wrought.” 

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain

Historian Keisha N. Blain derived the title of her latest book from a well-known quote by its subject, voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer : “We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone, but you are not free whether you are white or Black, until I am free.” As Blain wrote for Smithsonian last year, Hamer, who grew up in the Jim Crow South in a family of sharecroppers , first learned about her right to vote in 1962, at the age of 44. After attempting to register to vote in Mississippi, she faced verbal and physical threats of violence—experiences that only strengthened her resolve.

Blain’s book is one of two new Hamer biographies released in 2021. The other, Walk With Me by historian Kate Clifford Larson , offers a more straightforward account of the activist’s life. Comparatively, Blain’s volume situates Hamer in the broader political context of the civil rights movement. Both titles represent a long-overdue celebration of a woman whose contributions to the fight for equal rights have historically been overshadowed by men like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America

Explores the Black activist’s ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality

Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love by Rebecca Frankel

On April 30, 1942, 11-year-old Philip Lazowski found himself separated from his family during a Nazi selection in the Polish town of Zhetel. Realizing that the elderly, the infirm and unaccompanied children were being sent in one direction and families with work permits in the other, he tried to blend in with the children of a woman he recognized, only to hear her hiss , “Don’t stand next to us. You don’t belong in this group.” Looking around, Lazowski soon spotted another stranger and her daughters. Desperate, he pleaded with her to let him join them. After pausing momentarily, the woman— Miriam Rabinowitz —took his hand and said, “If the Nazis let me live with two children, they’ll let me live with three.”

All four survived the selection. From there, however, their paths temporarily diverged. Lazowski reunited with his family, remaining imprisoned in the Zhetel ghetto before fleeing into the nearby woods, where he remained hidden for the next two and a half years. Miriam, her husband Morris and their two children similarly sought refuge in a forest but did not encounter Lazowski again until after the war. (Lazowski later married one of the Rabinowitz daughters, Ruth, after running into Miriam at a 1953 wedding in Brooklyn—a “stroke of luck that … mirrors the random twists of fate that enabled the family to survive while so many others didn’t,” per Publishers Weekly .) 

As journalist Rebecca Frankel writes in Into the Forest , the Rabinowitzes and Lazowski were among the roughly 25,000 Jews who survived the war by hiding out in the woods of Eastern Europe. The majority of these individuals (about 15,000) joined the partisan movement , eking out a meager existence as ragtag bands of resistance fighters, but others, like the Rabinowitzes, formed makeshift family camps, “aiming not for revenge but survival,” according to the Forward . Frankel’s account of the family’s two-year sojourn in the woods captures the harsh realities of this lesser-known chapter in Holocaust history, detailing how forest refugees foraged for food (or stole from locals when supplies were scarce), dug underground shelters and remained constantly on the move in hopes of avoiding Nazi raids. Morris, who worked in the lumber business, used his pre-war connections and knowledge of the forest to help his family survive, avoiding the partisans “in the hope of keeping outside the fighting fray,” as Frankel writes for the New York Times . Today, she adds, the stories of those who escaped into the woods remain “so elusive” that some scholars have referred to them as “the margins of the Holocaust.”

Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love

From a little-known chapter of Holocaust history, one family’s inspiring true story

The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age by Amy Sohn

Though its title might suggest otherwise, The Man Who Hated Women focuses far more on the American women whose rights Anthony Comstock sought to suppress than the sexist government official himself. As novelist and columnist Amy Sohn explains in her narrative non-fiction debut, Comstock , a dry goods seller who moonlighted as a special agent to the U.S. Post Office and the secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, spent more than four decades hounding activists who advocated for women’s reproductive rights. In 1873, he lobbied Congress to pass the Comstock Act , which made it illegal to send “obscene, lewd or lascivious” material—including documents related to birth control and sexual health —through the mail; in his view, the author adds, “obscenity, which he called a ‘hydra-headed-monster,’ led to prostitution, illness, death, abortions and venereal disease.”

The Man Who Hated Women centers on eight women activists targeted by Comstock: among others, Victoria Claflin Woodhull, the first woman to run for president; anarchist and labor organizer Emma Goldman; Planned Parenthood founder and notorious eugenicist Margaret Sanger ; abortionist Ann “ Madam Restell ” Lohman; and homeopath Sarah Chase , who fought back against censorship by dubbing a birth control device the “Comstock Syringe.” Weaving together these women’s stories, Sohn identifies striking parallels between 19th- and 20th-century debates and contemporary threats to abortion rights. “Risking destitution, imprisonment and death,” writes the author in the book’s introduction, “[these activists] defined reproductive liberty as an American right, one as vital as those enshrined in the Constitution. … Without understanding [them], we cannot fight the assault on women’s bodies and souls that continues even today.”

The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age

A narrative history of Anthony Comstock, anti-vice activist and U.S. Postal Inspector, and the remarkable women who opposed his war on women’s rights at the turn of the 20th century

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele

In this sweeping chronicle , scholar Olivette Otele challenges white-centric narratives of European history by tracing African people’s presence on the continent from the 3rd century to the 21st. Featuring a rich cast of characters, including Renaissance duke Alessandro de’ Medici , 18th-century polymath Joseph Boulogne , and actress and artists’ muse Jeanne Duval , African Europeans artfully examines changing conceptions of race and how these ideas have shaped both real-world experiences and accounts of the past. 

“The term ‘African European’ is … a provocation for those who deny that one can have multiple identities and even citizenships, as well as those who claim that they do not ‘see color,’” writes Otele in the book’s introduction. “The aims of this volume are to understand connections across time and space, to debunk persistent myths, and to revive and celebrate the lives of African Europeans.”

African Europeans: An Untold History

A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent

The Eagles of Heart Mountain by Bradford Pearson

Life at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated between August 1942 and November 1945, was punctuated by harsh winters, inadequate medical care, and racist treatment by white staff and locals. A year or so after the camp’s opening, however, prisoners gained an unlikely source of hope: high school football. As journalist Bradford Pearson writes in The Eagles of Heart Mountain , the team—made up mainly of second-generation immigrants who’d never played the sport before—went undefeated in the 1943 season and lost just one game the year after that. 

Pearson juxtaposes the heartwarming tale of the underdog Eagles with details of how players resisted the draft. Reluctant to fight on behalf of a country that had ordered their detainment, several of the young men refused to enlist, leaving them vulnerable to (additional) imprisonment. “We are not being disloyal,” declared the Heart Mountain–based Fair Play Committee. “We are not evading the draft. We are all loyal Americans fighting for justice and democracy right here at home.”

The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America

The impeccably researched, deeply moving, never-before-told tale about a World War II incarceration camp in Wyoming and its extraordinary high school football team

About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks by David Rooney

“[F]or thousands of years,” argues David Rooney in About Time , humans have “harnessed, politicized and weaponized” time, using clocks to “wield power, make money, govern citizens and control lives.” A former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, home of Greenwich Mean Time , Rooney traces his fascination with horology to his childhood, when his parents ran a clockmaking and restoration business. Over a lifetime spent studying clocks, the scholar realized that the devices could be used as windows into civilization, revealing insights on “capitalism, the exchange of knowledge, the building of empires and the radical changes to our lives brought by industrialization.”

About Time centers on 12 clocks created over some 2,000 years, from a sundial at the Roman forum in 263 B.C.E. to a plutonium time-capsule clock buried in Osaka, Japan, in 1970. As the centuries progressed, timekeeping tools became increasingly accurate—a development that could “never [be] politically neutral,” notes the Washington Post in its review of the book. Instead, the standardization of time enabled capitalist endeavors like the opening and closing of financial markets and social control measures such as laws limiting when consumers could purchase alcohol. Overall, writes Rooney, his “personal, idiosyncratic and above all partial account” seeks to demonstrate that “monumental timekeepers mounted high up on towers or public buildings have been put there to keep us in order, in a world of violent disorder, … as far back as we care to look.” 

About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks

A captivating, surprising history of timekeeping and how it has shaped our world

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton

Between July 1964 and April 2001, almost 2,000 urban rebellions sparked by racially motivated police intimidation, harassment and violence broke out across the U.S. These “explosions of collective resistance to an unequal and violent order,” in Elizabeth Hinton ’s words , are often characterized as riots—a term the Yale historian rejects in favor of “rebellion.” Citing a rich trove of historical data, Hinton’s America on Fire   convincingly argues that Black rebellions occur in response to police violence rather than the other way around. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1960s “ War on Crime ,” for example, contributed to the growth of local police forces that “encroach[ed on] all aspects of Black social life, transforming typical youthful transgressions into fodder for police assaults on young Black people,” per the New Yorker .

Published almost exactly a year after George Floyd was killed in police custody, America on Fire deftly draws parallels between the violence that followed the assassinations of civil rights leaders in the 1960s and the 2020 protests. Only “extraordinary” acts of police violence, like the well-documented murder of Floyd, prompt such rebellions today: “[T]he daily violence and indignities that Black people experience in encounters with police go unaddressed,” notes the Washington Post in its review of the book. “In this sense, Hinton argues that the status quo has won. Ordinary police violence has become normalized, run-of-the-mill. We respond to only its most brutal forms.”

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

From one of our top historians, a groundbreaking story of policing and “riots” that shatters our understanding of the post–civil rights era

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Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history.

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The Best New Biographies of 2023

CJ Connor is a cozy mystery and romance writer whose main goal in life is to make their dog proud. They are a Pitch Wars alumnus and an Author Mentor Match R9 mentor. Their debut mystery novel BOARD TO DEATH is forthcoming from Kensington Books. Twitter: @cjconnorwrites | cjconnorwrites.com

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Read on to discover nine of the best biographies published within the last year. Included are life stories of singular people, including celebrated artists and significant historical figures, as well as collective biographies.

The books included in this list have all been released as of writing, but biography lovers still have plenty to look forward to before the year is out. A few to keep your eye out for in the coming months:

• The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell (HarperOne, September 26)
• Einstein in Time and Space by Samuel Graydon (Scribner, November 14)
• Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World by Amisha Padnani (Penguin Random House, November 14).

Without further ado, here are the best biographies of 2023 so far!

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

Ellen and William Craft were a Black married couple who freed themselves from slavery in 1848 by disguising themselves as a traveling white man and an enslaved person. Author Ilyon Woo recounts their thousand-mile journey to seek safety in the North and their escape from the United States in the months following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Written over a period of 11 years with exclusive journalistic access to the subject, author Michael Finkel explores the motivations, heists, and repercussions faced by the notorious and prolific art thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Of special focus is his relationship with his girlfriend and accomplice, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

While recently published, King: A Life is already considered to be the most well-researched biography of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. published in decades. New York Times bestselling journalist Jonathan Eig explores the life and legacy of Dr. King through thousands of historical records, including recently declassified FBI documents.

Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters by Lynnée Denise

This biography is part of the Why Music Matters series from the University of Texas. It reflects on the legendary blues singer’s life through an essay collection in which the author (also an accomplished musician) seeks to recreate the feeling of browsing through a box of records.

Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang

Historian Leah Redmond Chang’s latest book release focuses on three aristocratic women in Renaissance Europe: Catherine de’ Medici, Elizabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. As a specific focus, she examines the juxtaposition between the immense power they wielded and yet the ways they remained vulnerable to the patriarchal, misogynistic societies in which they existed.

Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Anna May Wong was a 20th-century actress who found great acclaim while still facing discrimination and typecasting as a Chinese woman. University of California professor Yunte Huang explores her life and impact on the American film industry and challenges racist depictions of her in accounts of Hollywood history in this thought-provoking biography.

Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown

Written by Rhodes Scholar and University of Pennsylvania medical student Jasmine Brown, this collective biography shares the experiences and accomplishments of nine Black women physicians in U.S. history — including Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black American woman to earn a medical degree in the 1860s, and Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty

Two years after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s death, this biography presents a comprehensive history of Larry McMurtry’s life and legacy as one of the most acclaimed Western writers of all time.

The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by Leta McCollough Seletzky

Journalist Leta McCollough Seletzky examines her father, Marrell “Mac” McCollough’s complicated legacy as a Black undercover cop and later a member of the CIA. In particular, she shares his account as a witness of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel.

Are you a history buff looking for more recommendations? Try these.

• Best History Books by Era
• Books for a More Inclusive Look at American History
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8 New History Releases to Look Forward to

January, February, and March are full of promising new reads.

• Photo Credit: Aditya Vyas / Unsplash

With the holiday season already becoming a distant memory, there is no better way to relieve those winter blues than by settling down with a good book. Here are eight of the hottest new nonfiction history releases which allow you to relive the past from the comfort of your own home. There really is a topic to suit every kind of history buff here, including a real-life murder mystery dating back over two millennia, a fascinating insight into one of the last segregated asylums in the US, and the forgotten history of climate change.

Release date: January 9

The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century

By Benn Steil

Serving as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president during World War II, Henry Wallace travelled widely as a roaming US ambassador and formed a particularly close relationship with the Soviet Union. All this changed when Wallace surprisingly failed to be re-nominated as vice president at the 1944 Democratic Party Convention. Debate has raged ever since as to why this happened and whether the Cold War would have been averted if Wallace had continued to exert influence over US foreign policy. 

Award-winning author Benn Steil offers an entirely different perspective in his compelling new biography of Henry Wallace. In The World That Wasn’t,  Steil sets out to challenge many of the previously held assumptions regarding Wallace’s career, based on fascinating new material from Soviet Russia and FBI archives. Along the way he uncovers plenty of evidence to support his theory that the politician’s fall from power was not as significant in terms of the Cold War as has been previously suggested.

Hardcover release date: January 9

Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City

By Dennis Romano

Dennis Romano’s sweeping history of Venice   is a must-read for anyone wishing to discover more about how a once-obscure fishing community developed into one of the world’s most celebrated cities. Romano’s comprehensive account begins back in the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, and traces every stage of Venice’s evolution from an independent city-state wielding enormous maritime power to its present status as a major tourist destination and cultural center. Along the way, Romano focuses on the lives of the people who have made the city their home, highlighting their cultural, political and economic achievements, as well as examining the ongoing challenges caused by Venice’s unique location.

20 Travel Books That Will Feed Your Wanderlust

Release date: January 23

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

By Antonia Hylton

Following a decade of research into hospital records, personal documents and newspaper articles, Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton has produced this compelling history of Maryland’s Crownsville Hospital. Opening in 1911 as the state’s Hospital for the Negro Insane, Crownsville was in operation for 93 years and is notable as one of the last segregated asylums in the US. Hylton sensitively intermingles the moving personal stories of Crownsville’s patients with those of the people who worked there. In so doing, she also raises many thought-provoking questions on a range of important wider issues relating to civil rights and mental healthcare provision.

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Release date: February 6

The Shadows of Socrates: The Heresy, War, and Treachery Behind the Trial of Socrates

By Matt Gatton

The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates has captured the imagination of the Western World ever since antiquity. Not only have his teachings influenced philosophical thinking all over the globe for well over two millennia, but the manner of his death has also been long debated. In this absorbing new book, Matt Gatton sets out to solve one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries in history, discovering how and why Socrates was put on trial for “impiety” and who was responsible for the decision which ended with the great philosopher’s death penalty.

New Series “Ancient Lives” Fills in the Gaps with Authoritative Biographies

From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia

By Peter Jackson

By the mid-14th century, the great Mongol Empire, established by Genghis Khan, appeared to be in terminal decline until the rise to power of the warlord, Tamerlane. In his latest book, Peter Jackson provides a vivid portrayal of these two contrasting characters, whose legacy helped to shape the destiny of the region for many centuries to come. Drawing on many years of painstaking research, Jackson’s authoritative account is particularly insightful when re-evaluating Tamerlane’s contribution to Asian history.

Release date: February 27

Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

By Philippa Gregory

So many history books look at the past from a mainly male perspective that it is refreshing to discover this groundbreaking new book by bestselling author, Philippa Gregory. Using a wide range of different source material spanning 900 years, she has produced a unique history of Britain which tells the story through the extraordinary lives of “normal women”. From the Norman conquest to the present day, Gregory has uncovered daring tales of female jousters, highway women and Spitfire pilots, but equally powerful are the stories of those women who helped to shape the future direction of British society from their own homes.

20 Influential Women in History You Need to Know About

Release date: March 12

Chaos in the Heavens

By Jean-Baptiste Fressoz & Fabien Locher

The debate regarding the need for action on climate change continues to gain momentum and, without doubt, it represents one of the most significant challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. However, it may come as a surprise that discussion regarding this seemingly contemporary issue dates back centuries. In their thought-provoking new book on the forgotten history of climate change, French historians Jean-Baptiste Fressoz and Fabien Locher show that debate regarding environmental issues has consistently resurfaced at times of dramatic upheaval throughout history—until the coming of the 19th-century industrial era, when the powerful Western nations began to adopt a studied indifference to the subject. Along the way, the authors uncover some fascinating examples of historical environmental debate, ranging from the conquistadors in the New World to the French revolutionaries of 1789.

A Change in Weather Created Global Consequences in the 17th Century

Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York

By Tyler Anbinder

Award-winning historian Tyler Anbinder recounts in his latest book the fascinating story of the Irish immigrants who fled from their native land during the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s for a new life in New York. The Irish community rapidly became one of the city’s largest ethnic groups, yet they were often subject to discrimination, and even today those early Irish immigrants are often depicted as downtrodden victims. The culmination of a 10-year research project, Plentiful Country  aims to turn this perception on its head, using the individual narratives of the Irish refugees themselves to tell the true story of what happened to these enterprising people and their descendants.

Feature image: Aditya Vyas / Unsplash

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The Best New History Books to TBR in 2021

William Shakespeare famously wrote “what’s past is prologue,” which is just a fancy way of saying that knowing our history matters. If you’re a big history book reader, then we’ve rounded up ten new releases in history books that you’ll definitely want to read in 2021. Spanning across the globe and reaching back through the centuries, there’s a book here for every interest!

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019  edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Coedited by the National Book Award winning author who wrote  Stamped from the Beginning , this history book takes readers through four hundred years of history of Africans in the Americas. It begins in 1619, a year before the Mayflower, with the first recorded instance of Africans arriving in the so-called new world, and spans the next four-hundred years with contributions from an array of writers that range from factual to personal memoir.

The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP  by Alex Tresniowski

In 1910, a ten-year-old girl named Marie Williams was brutally murdered in a small town. When no one could find her killer, the town reached out to one of New York’s most renowned detectives. Although he’d never investigated a murder before, he took on the case, tracking down a killer, pulling back the curtain on a small town darkness, and laying the groundwork for the founding of the NAACP.

The Princess Spy : The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of the Romanones  by Larry Loftis

Written by the author of  Code Name: Lise , this is a new biography about Aline Griffith, a young woman born in suburban New York who became desperate to join the war efforts when WWII broke out, and was trained as a spy before being sent to Madrid. There, she entered high society, charming officials and wielding secrets, even after she married into one of Spain’s wealthiest families.

A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood : The Bible and the American Civil War  by James P. Byrd

In this history book, Byrd examines the cultural significance of Christianity, particularly the Bible, on the American Civil War. He looks at how the Bible’s verses were used as rhetoric and propaganda for both sides, how people referred to the Bible to justify a myriad of causes, and even how soldiers carried the Bible into battle.

Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India  by Suchitra Vijayan

India is one of the most populous countries in the world, and the second largest democracy. The country borders a number of diverse countries and it’s home to many different cultural groups. In this first contemporary history of the country, Vijayan looks at the legacy of colonialism, independence, and how political instability and modernization have shaped the nation.

American and Iran : A History from 1720 to the Present  by John Ghazvinian

Going back to the days before the United States was even a country, Ghazvinian looks at the history of Persia and America, and how relations have been shaped over the centuries. The author draws upon research conducted in archives in both the U.S. and Iran to create a balanced and fascinating history.

The Three Mothers : How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation  by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin were all significant thinkers and influencers of the 20th century, particularly of the Civil Rights Movement. This book examines the lives of their mothers, who all grew up in somewhat similar situations at the beginning of the century, and how their experiences influenced the upbringing of their more famous sons. 

A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South  by Ben Montgomery

George Dinning was a Black man who had worked as a farmer in relative peace for over ten years when he was accused of theft, and a mob of white men descended upon his farm at night. When he shot back in self defense, he accidentally killed a white man from one of the wealthiest families in the state. This was just the beginning of a legal battle that would see Dinning as the first Black man to not only reverse a wrongful murder conviction, but win damages afterwards.

The African Look Book: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women  by Catherine E. McKinley

Too often, we see historical events as something boring and dusty found between pages of books, but this book brings history to life through a wide array of vibrant images. McKinley has curated a personal archive of images of African women in the first one hundred years of photography (1870-1970) that reveals these women for who they really were.

The Doctors Blackwell : How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine  by Janice P. Nimura

In this fascinating biography of the first two women in the U.S. to become medical doctors, Nimura recounts the challenges and triumphs of two determined women who not only broke ground in the medical field, but founded the first hospital completely run by women in the United States. Although they didn’t always agree, their work left a lasting mark on medical history.

Need more history books in your life? Check out our round up of the  best history book subscription services . And make sure you never miss a new history book release by signing up for TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations! TBR is a personalized book recommendation service that sends you books you’ll love to read.

Here’s how it works: Simply fill out the reader survey and let us know what you want more of–such as new history books–and what you’re not keen on. Then, an expert Biblioligist will read your responses and recommend three books just for you. Receive your recommendation letter via email in about two weeks, or opt to receive your recommendations as brand new hardcovers from our partner, Print: A Bookstore in Portland, ME in about three to four weeks.  Learn more and sign up now!

The Best 10 Biographies by Women to Add to Your Reading List

From former first ladies to famous actors and standup comedians.

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The books on this list include incredible true stories about remarkable women who overcame great adversity, from Hollywood heavyweights sharing their personal stories for the first time to women journeying through grief, love, heartbreak, and hardship. While some of these books explore what it means to move forward after a violent crime, others explain the influence a person's upbringing had on their identity. Here, we round up 10 of the best biographies of women to add to your reading list in 2024.

'Becoming' by Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama needs no introduction following her eight-year tenure as first lady in the White House, but that doesn't make her story any less remarkable. Becoming covers everything from Michelle's youth in Chicago to her relationship with husband and former president Barack Obama and the way she's learned to juggle working on a world stage alongside raising her family. Rather than shying away from her mistakes, Michelle reflects on her life to date, offering every ounce of wisdom she's gathered, making her memoir an essential read.

'I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban' by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

When Malala Yousafzai was just 15 years old, she was shot in the head after standing up to the Taliban regarding her right to an education. Seemingly against all odds, Yousafzai survived the attack, and was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy on behalf of children and young people. Since then, she has continued her activism by supporting young women to receive an education, while opposing extremism. I Am Malala is Yousafzai's incredible story , told in her own words.

'Inside Out: A Memoir' by Demi Moore

As an award-winning actor and the ex-wife of Bruce Willis , Demi Moore is no stranger to the spotlight. In Inside Out: A Memoir, Moore uses her wit and candor to discuss her unlikely rise to fame, the difficulties she encountered as a Hollywood star, and aspects of her personal life even the most dedicated fan wouldn't know. From her very real battles with sexism to the disintegration of multiple relationships, Moore doesn't hold anything back in her emotional autobiography.

'Know My Name' by Chanel Miller

With Know My Name, Chanel Miller gave up her anonymity as Emily Doe to tell her story. In 2016, Brock Turner was found guilty of three counts of felony sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to six months in county jail, although he would only serve three. Following the trial, Miller's victim impact statement went viral online, in which she revealed the devastating impact the crime had on every aspect of her life. Know My Name is an intimate portrayal of what it's like to survive a life-changing event and find a new forward.

'Finding Me' by Viola Davis

Viola Davis' biography , Finding Me, elevated the actor to EGOT status when she took home a Grammy for her performance of the audiobook, and it's easy to see why. Discussing her humble upbringing on Rhode Island and her quest to forge a career as an actor, Davis encourages honesty and self-reflection when readers look back on their own stories. While Davis' talent is undeniable, her journey to stardom has been anything but simple, making Finding Me an important and timeless read.

'Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology' by Leah Remini: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology

After leaving Scientology in July 2013, Leah Remini was forced to rebuild her life from the ground up. Despite being a famous actor, Remini was seemingly adrift in the world without her former religion and allegedly faced harassment and stalking by the organization for fleeing. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology tracks Remini's upbringing in the church, the reasons she finally decided to leave, and the ways in which her life changed after she walked away.

'Survival of the Thickest' by Michelle Buteau

Comedian Michelle Buteau has continually proven herself with roles in Netflix movies, such as Someone Great and Always Be My Maybe, and on TV shows like Russian Doll and First Wives Club. In Survival of the Thickest, Buteau provides readers with an insight into her life growing up in New Jersey with Caribbean parents and why she made the move to Miami for college. Both hilarious and intimate, Buteau gets candid about her chaotic life as a standup comedian, starting a family with her Dutch husband, and the difficult decisions she faced when becoming a mother.

'Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail' by Cheryl Strayed

Brought to the big screen in a movie starring Reese Witherspoon , Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a story of resilience, heartbreak, grief, and an 1100-mile solo hike. Leaving behind a difficult romantic relationship and personal demons and still reeling from the death of her mother, Strayed navigates the challenging walk with very little hiking experience. In spite of her shortcomings, the journey changes the course of her life forever.

'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner in H Mart: A Memoir

Known as the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast , Michelle Zauner's biography is an exploration of family, food, identity, loss, and the journey to discovering oneself. From her childhood in Oregon to her experiences staying in Seoul, South Korea, with her grandmother, Zauner examines the strands that form her identity as a Korean American. In addition to tracking her career as a rock musician, Zauner opens up about the devastating family diagnosis that changed her outlook on life and heritage.

'I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home' by Jami Attenberg

Author Jami Attenberg is known for her novels The Middlesteins and The Melting Season, and for short story collections such as Instant Love . In I Came All This Way to Meet You, Attenberg shares the experiences that shaped her worldview, including following her father's occupation as a traveling salesman. As Attenberg discovered her own creative identity, she also found the less glamorous aspects of writing, such as the cross-country book tours and the lack of stable housing. Despite the challenges, Attenberg's memoir provides the encouragement needed to never quit, whatever the project.

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'Shogun' adviser dives into main character's real-life counterpart for new book

Viewers around the world are tuning in weekly to the hit FX series “ Shogun ” (based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell) to follow the adventures of John Blackthorne, an Englishman who arrives in 17th-century Japan at a moment of high drama.

“That was not intended, because we thought ‘Shogun’ would be out in 2023,” Cryns says. “The shooting was already done in the summer of 2022, but the process of editing everything took a long time. My book was coming out much later, but ‘Shogun’ was postponed. It is a very nice coincidence.”

The show centers on three key characters: Blackthorne (often referred to as “ anjin ” [pilot] in the show), Lord Yoshii Toranaga and Lady Toda Mariko. Like Adams, Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis) is an Englishman who sails with the Dutch and arrives in Japan on a dual mission to trade and enlist the Japanese help in the Dutch war against the Portuguese and Spanish. Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a stand-in for warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who took a deep interest in Adams and made him a senior adviser. Mariko (Anna Sawai), who acts as interpreter between Blackthorne and Toranaga, is based on Hosokawa Gracia, a Catholic convert. Clavell took a significant amount of poetic license with his original novel, but the overlap between the characters and their real-life counterparts is considerable.

A professor of Japanese history at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Cryns got involved in the series at an early stage in the development process.

“In the beginning of 2021, I got an email asking if I could become the historical adviser to the show. They were still in the process of writing the scripts,” says Cryns, who was on the producers’ radar from his extensive writing about Adams, Ieyasu and the late Sengoku Period (1482-1573). “I have also done a lot of TV programs in Japan about those subjects, so the Japanese producer knew that I existed.”

Historical and scientific advisers often find themselves being sidelined when the dictates of story and drama clash with reality, but Cryns found the experience of working with showrunner Justin Marks (who co-created “Shogun” with executive producer and wife Rachel Kondo) to be a very positive one. The original script for the first episode, which Marks shared with Cryns, “was very Western-centered. It was far away from what I have read about those years in the Japanese documents. So I started first to explain to them how samurai would behave, how they would react in certain situations, and I was surprised that they put all that in the script. I thought perhaps they would put in 30%, but they really started putting almost everything in the scripts.”

One example of a historical inaccuracy in a major Hollywood production about Japan shows up in “The Last Samurai.” In the 2003 film, a former U.S. Army captain, played by Tom Cruise, teaches Japanese soldiers how to use guns as if this technology were new to them in 1876. Blackthorne, however, has a very different experience. In the fourth episode of “Shogun,” he is asked to teach Western military tactics to the samurai in the hope it will give them an edge over their enemies. Before Blackthorne can begin, he is told by a retainer of Toranaga, via Mariko’s translation, that the men do not need to learn “basic skills” like the use of firearms because “the Portuguese brought us guns 50 years ago” (Portuguese explorers landed in Japan in 1543). I tell Cryns that this line made me laugh out loud. He laughs, too.

“Well, that was one of my ideas,” he says. Instead of muskets, Blackthorne teaches them to use cannons. “The Dutch taught the Japanese how to use cannons, so that was historically accurate. I also knew that there were a lot of chain shots in the ship on which Adams came to Japan. These are two cannonballs tied together with a chain that they used to cut the mast of the other ship, so I thought that’s a nice idea that you could use — shooting them at the samurai.” It’s a particularly grim, bloody scene. He laughs again. “There’s been a lot of commotion about that, and then I saw some articles saying, ‘The historian was responsible for this gruesome scene!’”

Japanese culture has been a lifelong passion for Cryns, who grew up in Antwerp, Belgium, ever since he befriended a Japanese boy who joined his kindergarten class. Cryns moved to Japan in 1989 to study Japanese history.

“At first, I was studying the Edo Period (1603-1868), but gradually I went (back in) time and settled on the latter half of the Sengoku Period, especially Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hosokawa Gracia and William Adams, and this is really a coincidence but these are the three models for the main characters of ‘Shogun.’ One reason why I chose these three was that they all have Western sources on them. Of course, I primarily focus on studying Japanese sources, but I also spend a lot of time searching in Western sources because that’s something I can contribute to Japan’s scholarship.”

It’s this synthesis of Japanese and Western sources that has culminated in his new book. The impetus was a joint project involving Leiden University, which led to the discovery of many new details about Adams’ life in Japan.

“In 1609, the Dutch ‘factory’ (a trading post) was established in Japan, and almost all of the documents of that factory are still intact,” Cryns says. “They are now in The Hague, in the National Archives. I found a lot of new sources — for example, four new letters from Jacques Specx, the head of the Dutch factory, to Adams.

“Also, there is a lot written in Specx’s diary when he went to the court in Sunpu to visit Ieyasu in 1611. From there I could reconstruct his role from 1609 until 1613, when the English came. That’s four years in which Adams played a very important role in the foreign relations of Japan because, for example, he mediated between the Dutch and Ieyasu to get the Dutch favorable trading privileges.”

The book does an excellent job of setting Adams’ experiences in Japan within a wider geopolitical context as well as focusing on the personalities involved. It’s the sense of Adams as a man, not a historical actor, that enlivens the narrative, and it’s one that drives Cryns’ love of Japanese history.

“I’m attracted to samurai culture, but not in the way that most people are. There are a lot of samurai enthusiasts who start from Japanese martial arts, or who are interested in the weapons, the armor and so on. I am more interested in the people, and that has grown from reading their documents, their letters and diaries. I want to explore the human aspects.”

Like “Shogun,” this new biography of Adams certainly does that.

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James Bond’s creator lived a life to rival the spy’s

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Book Review

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

By Nicholas Shakespeare Harper: 864 pages, $45 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

In Nicholas Shakespeare’s new biography of author Ian Fleming, James Bond arrives on the scene rather late. But there’s a good reason to delay focusing on the secret agent Fleming created: His life before Bond is far more interesting than what followed, and much of it would find its way into the books like “bullion,” Shakespeare writes, “to be cut into slices.”

Fleming didn’t publish “Casino Royale” — the novel that introduced Bond to the world — until 1953, when Fleming was 43. By that time, he had already lived multiple lives: as a war reporter, book collector, stockbroker, merchant banker, naval intelligence operative. Fleming may have been staring at a blank page in 1953, but his advance work was abundant: His own thrill-seeking life would become the raw material of his remunerative popular art.

Shakespeare, a British novelist and the author of a biography of English writer Bruce Chatwin, is the first Fleming biographer to get his hands on just about everything Fleming wrote, which helps to make this biography somehow both capacious and breathlessly entertaining. He does a fine job of clearing up some of the hazier myths about Fleming’s tenure in British naval intelligence, even while much of that documentation remains classified. The subtitle of “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man” is apt: This is certainly the most three-dimensional portrait of a complex man who gamely tried to shore up the postwar morale of his beloved England with his fictional hero at a time when the Empire desperately needed it.

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Ian Fleming was to the manner born. His grandfather Robert was one of the wealthiest merchant bankers in 19th century England. Fleming lost his father, Val, in World War I, which might have given his overbearing mother, Eve, sufficient leverage to gain control over her son’s life. It didn’t work out that way.

He was, for a time, her reclamation project: a dropout at Eton College and then a bust at Sandhurst Military Academy. He tried on a few mainstream white-collar jobs, but his short career as a stockbroker was mostly long lunches and minimal trade orders.

Fleming found his metier when Eve smoothed the way for him to work as a cub reporter at Reuters news service. As Shakespeare shows us time and again, Fleming was blessed with great timing. Dispatched to Stalin’s Russia in 1933 to cover a sensational corporate fraud trial whose docket included saboteurs and double agents, Fleming returned to England entranced with state secrets and the business of intelligence. The assignment changed the course of his life.

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Through his contacts, Fleming finagled an interview with Admiral John Godfrey, the head of Naval Intelligence Division, in the hopes of pivoting into a career as a spycatcher. Again, good timing: As it happened, Godfrey was looking for a factotum. Fleming was hired as Godfrey’s assistant, but he had his boss’ ear in short order, bursting with ideas on how to fool Germany into coughing up the secrets of its supply routes, its combat readiness, its imminent military offensives. For the division, Fleming became the man with the golden mind.

Rumors about Fleming’s war heroics have swirled since the author’s death in 1964; what’s remarkable is that, by Shakespeare’s estimation, most of those outlandish rumors seem to be true. Fleming did spy on German military leaders with cameras and microphones, among other skulduggery. He was not only a crucial conduit during the war between the Naval Intelligence Division and the Americans’ Office of Strategic Services but also, according to Shakespeare, helped to create the organizational template for what became the Central Intelligence Agency. Shakespeare credits Fleming, a “seductive and persuasive force who … could achieve things not always recorded on paper,” with selling the OSS on the British model of intelligence gathering, thus sowing the seeds for a crucial partnership that helped the allies win the war.

All this, and Fleming had yet to write Agent 007 into existence. But Bond was on a slow simmer. When Churchill invited ideas from naval intelligence as to how the British might contain Hitler in the Mediterranean, Fleming’s pitch was pure 007: Line a cave on the southern coast with thick cork for quiet, then throw a wireless radio and some men inside to monitor German ship movements.

In 1942, Fleming convinced Admiral Godfrey to give him his own assault unit, whose remit included capturing German state secrets before the Germans destroyed them. Now Fleming found himself in the center of the action, his dispatches providing crucial intel for the Allies’ most ambitious offensives, including the Normandy landings that liberated Western Europe. There was also contact with Bletchley Park and the great “Enigma Machine” codebreaker Alan Turing, but Fleming’s ideas for intelligence retrieval were either too dangerous or too absurd to contemplate. Fleming stored it all up for later use in his fiction, when he “would execute in modern form those plans which (he) had conceived against the Nazis.”

Somehow Fleming, this “war-winner” as Godfrey came to call him, made time for relationships. Unlike Bond, who treats women like beach towels to be discarded after use, Fleming found and lost love, a libertine always in search of more than sex. He cultivated female patrons; one such friend, Maud Russell, supplied the funds for Fleming to build his Goldeneye compound on Jamaica’s northern coast. His marriage was troubled; Ann Fleming was a social climber who hosted literary salons and spent Fleming’s money lavishly. But Ann was the spur for Fleming to write his first Bond book; she was confident her husband could produce something great.

What finally made Fleming pick up his pen? He was mourning the decline of the Empire after the war; it was crumbling away one territory at a time. He also was stunned by the revelation that two MI6 agents had defected in 1951 as Russian spies, that his beloved British intelligence had been breached by an enemy in the most humiliating fashion. The Crown was corroding; James Bond would restore the national character by dint of his total dominion over evil, defeating the Red Menace one ghastly villain at a time. If Fleming’s Navy blues no longer fit him, he would have Bond suit up as his proxy.

Despite the runaway success of “Casino Royale,” the James Bond movie franchise was slow to gestate. By the early 1960s, Fleming’s 70-cigarettes-a-day habit had caught up with him. He suffered a devastating heart attack while embroiled in a nasty plagiarism lawsuit. There was also the matter of gradually declining sales for the Bond books, to the point where Fleming was eager to kill off his hero and move on. But then President Kennedy told a Life magazine reporter that “From Russia, With Love” was one of his favorite books, and Fleming could no longer dispose of Bond even if he tried.

What came next was 27 films that have grossed more than $7 billion. Fleming lived long enough to see only two of the films produced.

Marc Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

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A Warhol Superstar, but Never a Star

Cynthia Carr’s compassionate biography chronicles the brief, poignant life of the transgender actress Candy Darling, whose “very existence was radical.”

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CANDY DARLING: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr

Never mind soup-can paintings and portraits of the famous — what Andy Warhol keeps on giving is books . He’s like Mother Ginger in “The Nutcracker” : Smaller people keep running out from under his capacious skirts to bow or curtsy.

The latest is Candy Darling, the transgender actress who succumbed to cancer at 29 in 1974 , after being immortalized in a famous photograph by Peter Hujar and in the Lou Reed song “ Walk on the Wild Side .” She had lived fast — indeed frequently on speed — died young, and left a mutable corpse, with considerable dissent among family and friends about whether she should be buried and eulogized as a man or a woman.

The first full-length biography of her, by Cynthia Carr, a longtime staff writer for The Village Voice — quite the Mother Ginger itself, of late — is compassionate and meticulous, reconstructing its brittle, gleaming subject as one might a broken Meissen figurine.

Born the day after Thanksgiving in 1944, Candy Darling was christened James Lawrence Slattery in Queens, soon moving to the ticky-tacky conformist hamlets of North Merrick and then Massapequa Park, Long Island, which she’d later euphemize as her “country home” but which was then an apparent cesspool of toxic masculinity.

Her father, John, was a cashier for the New York Racing Association who gambled, drank and was violent: the ultimate Daddy Dearest for a child with effeminate tendencies. Her mother, Terry, a receptionist and bank teller, was more supportive and loving — but still, hamstrung by shame. Candy’s half brother, Warren, babysat for her as a child but did not accept her as a woman.

As a child, “Jimmy,” as Candy was known then, was shunned socially and bullied terribly, once ushered onto a box and into a noose by two teenagers in a neighbor’s backyard. Understandably, she avoided regular school as much as possible; her education was in magazines, cosmetology and, of course, movies — she was a Kim Novak superfan, later emulating her.

She worked briefly at a beauty parlor, whose sympathetic owner she took on adventures like horseback riding. “We can always imagine we’re out in the wide-open spaces,” she said dreamily. “And if you imagine it strong enough, you will be.”

Like Ada Calhoun, the daughter of the art critic Peter Schjeldahl who took over his unfinished biography of the poet Frank O’Hara with sparkling results , Carr gets a boost from someone else’s abandoned legwork. Darling’s close friend Jeremiah Newton interviewed many of her intimates before they died — he features prominently in a 2011 documentary, “ Beautiful Darling ” — and shared copious photos, letters and the diaries that Darling began keeping at 13 (some previously published ). One is titled “The Worst Years of My Life.”

Carr spares us the ponderous establishing shots that weigh down many books of this genre. Though “Worst Years” covers the early ’60s, for example, the only mention of John F. Kennedy in Carr’s book comes via a fan taking a picture of Marilyn Monroe the night she sang for his birthday. Candy Darling was apolitical, the author writes — she had a wistful incandescence more than a “fire in the belly” (as Carr titled a previous book about the artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz) — “yet her very existence was radical.”

She and the future Holly Woodlawn, another Warhol favorite, both toiled as file clerks and got out of the draft, Holly by showing up in hot pants and rouge; Candy by bursting into tears.

Stardom was Darling’s absolute raison d’être. You might argue that she was not only transgender but trans-era, longing to be a product and protectorate of the studio system. Alas, Warhol was no Louis B. Mayer, his films mostly art-house experiments — Carr is heroic at summarizing them — and when Darling finally gets to Los Angeles, for the premiere of his movie “ Women in Revolt ” (titled “Sex” at the time), the closest thing she gets to a break is broken promises from a drunk Ed McMahon needing roadside assistance. She does appear for about 15 seconds, uncredited, in the nightclub scene of “Klute, ” and for a while dated Roger Vadim.

Starring in Tennessee Williams’s late-career work “Small Craft Warnings” off Broadway was another high point — though even then neither the male nor the female actors wanted her in their dressing room, and she was consigned to a broom closet. She appeared in a Warhol-staged fashion show for Halston, but was only allowed to wear a maid’s costume.

Darling kept her chin up despite these humiliations, but again and again the rest of her body betrayed her. (Poverty and drugs didn’t help.) By 18, she’d lost almost a third of her teeth. She agonized about what she called “my flaw” — the pesky penis — but vacillated on what the publicist R. Couri Hay, one of those who eulogized her using the masculine pronoun, termed “the final cut.”

The massive quantities of unregulated female hormones she took, doctors and others thought, probably killed her — and yet dying young was in keeping with her fantasy of kinship to platinum-haired idols like Jean Harlow. Sardonic to the end, she joked that the presumed tumor hardening her belly was some kind of immaculate conception.

In a society ill equipped to accept her, Candy Darling’s short life was one of couch-surfing and cadging, which can make for some weird and grotty pages — oh, there’s a desiccated chicken under the bed. Many of those who remember her are unreliable narrators. But, as Carr notes: “All of them so delightful!” Bob Colacello, the O.G. Warhol chronicler, wrote that news of her fatal illness led to the only time he’d seen the artist cry.

There wasn’t really vocabulary to describe the territory Darling was exploring back then — maybe there’s too much vocabulary now, but that’s a different conversation — and her biographer extends a sure hand across the breach. To push her from the Warhol wings to center stage, at a moment when transgender rights are in roiling flux, just makes sense.

And you have to cheer when Tennessee Williams is asked by some rude person whether his star is a transsexual or a transvestite, and he roars back: “What a question to ask a lady!”

CANDY DARLING : Dreamer, Icon, Superstar | By Cynthia Carr | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 432 pp. | $30

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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