At the beginning of 1864, the Civil War was far from won; terrible and bloody Union setbacks and casualties lay ahead. Abraham Lincoln was facing a re-election battle as some northern Democrats were ready to start peace talks that could leave the Confederacy a separate slaveholding American nation and as his secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Cha...

It's the Second World War and the Savoy, the Dorchester and Claridge's teem with those determined not to allow Hitler to impact on their way of life. Spies: Meet Marie-Jacqueline Lancaster, the woman from M15 who has the gravy browning licked from her legs by Dylan Thomas. Royals: Meet Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, born in a suite at Clarid...

In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the artistry of Georgia O'Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, President Obama sees the traits of these heroes with...

As a diarist I have chronicled the time through which I have lived in meticulous detail: but all that is history. What matters now is the future for those who will live through it. The past is the past but there may be lessons to be learned which could help the next generation to avoid mistakes their parents and grandparents made. Certainly at my a...

As Deputy Prime Minister of Britain's first coalition government in over fifty years, Nick Clegg witnessed this change from the inside. Here he offers a frank account of his experiences - from his spectacular rise in the 2010 election to a brutal defeat in 2015, from his early years as an MEP in Brussels to the tumultuous fall-out of Britain's EU r...

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour, Michael Lewis' brilliant tragi-comic romp across post-crash Europe. Read by the actor Dylan Baker. Having made the U.S. financial crisis comprehensible for us all in The Big Short, Michael Lewis realised that he hadn't begun to get grips with the full story. How exactly...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of A Very English Scandal by John Preston, read by Daniel Weyman. The shocking true story of the first British politician to stand trial for murder Behind oak-panelled doors in the House of Commons, men with cut-glass accents and gold signet rings are conspiring to murder. It's the la...

The relationship between those who wield power and those whose job it is to tell us what they are doing has always been fraught with tension. Politicians now expect to be on camera and facing aggressive questions from the moment they open their front door to the moment they return home at night. Everything they say and do is instantly broadcast and...

The Second Sex caused uproar when it appeared in 1949. Simone de Beauvoir sets out groundbreaking ideas on what it meant to be a woman, charting the oppression of "the second sex." She argued that gender identity was shaped by upbringing in a world ruled by men, and her most startling thesis became a rallying cry for the feminist movement: "One is...

A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s. Graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, hunger and unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It c...

As the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel has had a pretty busy time of it lately. In the 18 months it's taken for a reality star to go from laughingstock to leader of the free world, Jon has travelled the length and breadth of the United States, experiencing it from a perspective that most of us could only dream of: he has flown aboard Air Forc...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, read by Fred Sanders. Two Harvard professors explain the dangerous world we face today Democracies can die with a coup d'‚tat - or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively when in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian le...

Varoufakis sparked one of the most spectacular and controversial battles in recent political history when, as finance minister of Greece, he attempted to re-negotiate his country's relationship with the EU. Despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of his arguments, he succeeded only in provoking the fury of Europe's politic...

Keep calm - but do not carry on. There is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit - except that it will be deeply damaging if it happens. Extricating Britain from Europe will be the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War. And as negotiations with the EU expose the promises of the Brexit campaign to have been hollow...

Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible? If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and irrationality. Yet, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer...

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Our Revolution written and read by Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders stormed to international headlines after running an extraordinary campaign for the Democratic primaries that saw over 13 million people turn out to vote for him, and changed the global discussion surrounding US politics. But how did a...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of My Life, Our Times by Gordon Brown, read by Gordon Kennedy. As former Prime Minister and our longest-serving Chancellor, Gordon Brown has been a guiding force for Britain and the world over three decades. This is his candid, poignant and deeply relevant story. In describing his upbringing in Scotlan...

This is a book about two people making the most important decisions in the world. One is Barack Obama. The other is Ben Rhodes. The World As It Is tells the full story of what it means to work alongside a radical leader; of how idealism can confront reality and survive; of how the White House really functions; and of what it is to have a partnershi...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Becoming by Michelle Obama. An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States 'A genuine page-turner, full of intimacies and reflections' Evening Standard 'A polished pearl of a memoir' New York Times 'A rich, entertaining and candid memoir. And overall Obama's a fun...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, read by Katherine Fenton. Around the world in Britain, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, there are people with power who are cashing in on chaos; exploiting bloodshed and catastrophe to brutally remake our world in their image. They are the shock doctors. Exposi...

Every day, James O'Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James's daily LBC show such essential listening - and has made James a standout social media star - is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning. In H...