History - European

AGINCOURT: THE KING, THE CAMPAIGN, THE BATTLE

by Juliet Barker

read by May Ballingall

running time 17hrs 35mins

The Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, was a turning-point not only in the Hundred Years War between England and France but also in the history of weaponry. This landmark study looks behind the action on the field to paint a portrait of the age, moving from the ambition of kings to the dynamics of daily life in peace and war.

THE BATTLE FOR SPAIN

by Antony Beevor

read by Sean Barrett

running time 18hrs 10mins

Antony Beevor analyses the complexity of the Spanish Civil War and explains the multiple conflicts which were taking place, particularly between the different Republican factions. He demonstrates how horrific conditions were and clarifies the reasons for the Nationalist victory.

THE CUT OUT GIRL

by Bart van Es

read by Bart van Es

running time 8hrs 50mins

Little Lien was given away from her Jewish parents in the Hague in the hope that she might be saved. Raised by a foster family in the provinces during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. When she fell out with her foster family, Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why. This is a moving story of a young girl's struggle for survival during war, and the powerful love and challenges of foster families.

DELIZIA!

by John Dickie

read by Valerie Dodd

running time 14hrs 50mins

John Dickie demonstrates that Italian cuisine is forged in the heart of the Italian city and in so doing takes us on a journey from medieval Milan to fascist Rome, from Renaissance Ferrara to 19th century Naples.

GAME OF QUEENS: THE WOMEN WHO MADE SIXTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE

by Sarah Gristwood

read by Angela Holland

running time 15hrs

As religion divided sixteenth-century Europe, an extraordinary group of women rose to power. From mother to daughter and mentor to protégée, Sarah Gristwood follows the passage of power from Isabella of Castile and Anne de Beaujeu through Anne Boleyn and on to Elizabeth I. Sarah Gristwood reveals the stories of the queens who had, until now, been overshadowed by kings.

HANNS AND RUDOLF

by Thomas Harding

read by John Hobday

running time 10hrs

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. Lieutenant Hanns Alexander is one of the lead investigators, Rudolf Höss his most elusive target.

KILLING THE BISMARCK

by Iain Ballantyne

read by Traber Burns

running time 11hrs 30mins

In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, broke out into the Atlantic, to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare. This new account of those dramatic events is a thrilling story, mainly from the point of view of the British battleships, cruisers and destroyers involved.

LEONARDO AND THE LAST SUPPER

by Ross King

read by Mark Meadows

running time 11hrs 20mins

For more than five centuries the Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. Ross King's book is both a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan and a 'biography' of one of the most famous works of art ever painted.

THE MAN WHO BROKE INTO AUSCHWITZ

by Denis Avey & Rob Broomby

read by Richard Simpson

running time 11hrs 38mins

In the summer of 1944 Denis Avey, held in a POW camp near Auschwitz III, hatched a plan to swap places with a Jewish inmate of that camp to witness for himself the brutality meted out to the prisoners there. This is his remarkable story, which he has only recently been able to bring himself to relate.

NAPOLEAN: THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH

by Adam Zamoyski

read by Leighton Pugh

running time 27hrs 10mins

Napoleon inspires passionately held and often conflicting visions. Was he a godlike genius, a romantic avatar, a megalomaniac monster, a compulsive warmonger or just a nasty little dictator? Adam Zamoyski strips away the lacquer of prejudice and places Napoleon the man within the context of his times. He does not justify or condemn but seeks instead to understand Napoleon's extraordinary trajectory.

PEACEMAKERS: SIX MONTHS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

by Margaret MacMillan

read by Suzanne Toren

running time 25hrs 45mins

Between January and July 1919, world leaders converged on Paris for the Peace Conference. The peacemakers - Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceauso, failed dismally to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have been made scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later. They tried to be evenhanded, but their goals could never in fact be achieved by diplomacy.

THE RENAISSANCE IN A NUTSHELL

by Peter Whitfield

read by Peter Whitfield

running time 1hr 15mins

A short and accessible introduction to the era that gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Palestrina. The Renaissance swept across Europe between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, heralding intellectual revolutions in science, art, philosophy and politics, and marking a decisive shift towards modern thinking.

SAS GHOST PATROL

by Damien Lewis

read by Leighton Pugh

running time 9hrs 45mins

In 1942 the SAS donned Nazi uniforms to perpetrate the most audacious and daring mission of the war. Beyond top secret, deniable in the extreme (and of course enjoying Churchill's enthusiastic blessing), this is one of the most remarkable stories of wartime lawlessness, eccentricity and raw courage in the face of impossible odds - a thoroughly British undertaking.

THIN PATHS: JOURNEYS IN AND AROUND AN ITALIAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE

by Julia Blackburn

read by Rosemary Graham

running time 9hrs 30mins

In 1994, while walking the Alta Via, the high path winding from the French border to the Bay of Lerici, a man stopped in a remote village, and found he couldn't forget it. Julia Blackburn married that man and in 1999 she moved to the house in the village that he bought and renovated. There she found a new way of life, one that is fast disappearing.

THE VENETIAN EMPIRE

by Jan Morris

read by Margaret Ralphs

running time 10hrs

A history of Venice's sea empire from its beginning in the late middle ages. Jan Morris brings her usual lucidity and perception to this remarkable empire, and brilliantly evokes the cities and states over which Venice held sway.

WATERLOO

by Bernard Cornwell

read by Bernard Cornwell

running time 9hrs

On the 18th June, 1815, the blood-soaked battle of Waterloo would become a landmark in European history. Now, brought to life by the celebrated novelist Bernard Cornwell, this is the chronicle of the four days leading up to the actual battle and a thrilling hour-by-hour account of that fateful day.