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No one knows a city like the people who live there - so who better to relate the history of Paris than its inhabitants through the ages? Taking us from 1750 to the new millennium, Graham Robb's Parisians is at once an audiobook to lose yourself in, to dip in and out of at leisure, and to return to again and again - rather like the city itself, in fact.

What did it feel like to be a woman living in Paris during the years 1939 to 1949? These were years of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation and secrets until, finally, there was renewal and retribution. Even at the darkest moments, dogs and cats might be abandoned howling on the street, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner, but glamour was ever present.

Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization's F section sent more than 400 agents into France, 39 of whom were women. But while some are widely known - Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan - others have had their stories largely overlooked. Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all 39 female agents. 

'I couldn't stop reading it . . . a classic of true crime' - Lissa Evans, author of Small Bomb at Dimperley 'A fascinating true crime case study . . . deeply moving' The Times A gripping, explosive murder mystery by acclaimed true crime writer Susannah Stapleton. In April 1929, the body of...

France Fictions désosse vingt-six exemples concrets d'instrumentalisation du passé, du Moyen Âge à nos jours : vingt-six récits pour certains mythifiés, tous adossés à une part de réel, dont il est possible de retracer les origines. Vingt-cinq historiennes et historiens de renom offrent ici un panorama clair et documenté des réécritures de l'histoire de France, exposant les outils des faussaires du passé, d'hier comme d'aujourd'hui, pour mieux leur résister.

Library Journal Best Books of 2025 * New York Public Library Best Books of 2025 * Finalist, Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Biography * Hyperallergic Favorite Art Books of 2025 * Publishers Weekly Best Books of Summer 2025 * BookBub Best Non-Fiction Release of the Season * Newsday’s Top...

'It's a hell of a story... The Talented Mr Ripley meets the Nouvelle Vague. A masterclass in narrating' THE TELEGRAPH 'Evocative, gripping and beautifully written. I've recommended this book to everyone I know' EMERALD FENNELL 'Highly original, atmospheric and brilliantly conceived, Murder in...

Follow Joan's awe-inspiring transformation from an unlikely warrior to a revered military commander, defying societal norms and facing insurmountable odds. With unwavering faith and unyielding determination, she rallies the French troops, inspiring them with her fervor and strategic brilliance. As Joan's legend grows, so too, does the complexity of her world. Navigate the treacherous political landscape of medieval Europe, where allegiances shift, betrayals abound, and the consequences of her actions have far-reaching implications.

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD (2011) A year of bones, of grave-dirt, relentless work. Of mummified corpses and chanting priests. A year of rape, suicide, sudden death. Of friendship too. Of desire. Of love... A year unlike any other he has lived. Deep in the heart of Paris, its...

FNH Audio presents a slightly abridged performance of this third volume of Charles Oman's military history classic. In this third volume, a detailed examination is made of the period from September 1809 to December 1810. This volume covers the battles of Ocana, Cadiz and Bussaco. It also examines in detail Massena's march through Portugal to the lines of Terres Vedras, the lines themselves, and his final retreat away in a desperate search for food.

When Napoleon decided to invade Russia in 1812, it became the event that would lead to his downfall. Setting off on his invasion on June 24th with a force numbering about 600,000–the largest army ever gathered up to that time–the military operation ended six months later with the last French soldiers stumbling out of Russia in total defeat.

Paris has long been a storied center of art and culture, and of romance, but in the 1920s its magnetism was especially irresistible. From around the world writers, artists, and composers steamed in, to visit or linger, some to reside. This book - a work of immense erudition spiced with anecdotes and gossip - documents their haunts and habits, their comings and goings, their relationships intimate and artistic.

Paris, 1940. A woman in a red hat and a black fur coat hurries down a side-street. She is Mathilde Carré, codenamed 'the cat', known as Agent Victoire. She is a charismatic spy; her story is one of resistance and survival. These are the darkest days for France, half occupied by Nazi Germany, half run by the collaborationist Vichy regime; and dark days for Britain - isolated and under threat of invasion.

Napoleon Bonaparte's ascent to power was meteoric. Ever the outsider and regarded by many as an upstart, his extraordinary determination, courage, and tactical skill saw him rise from ordinary beginnings to become the greatest military commander of his age. A brigadier general by the age of 24, crowned Emperor of France by age 35, he had conquered most of the countries of Europe by the time he was 45.

In Erotic Exchanges, Nina Kushner reveals the complex world of elite prostitution in 18th-century Paris by focusing on the professional mistresses who dominated it. In this demimonde, these dames entretenues exchanged sex, company, and sometimes even love for being "kept". Most of these women entered the profession unwillingly, either because they were desperate and could find no other means of support or because they were sold by family members to brothels or to particular men.

Paris is one of the most recognisable cities on the planet. Its skyline is etched into our minds with the Eiffel Tower rising above the rooftops, the Arc de Triomphe commanding the Champs-Élysées, and the Louvre guarding masterpieces beneath its glass pyramid. Yet for all its fame, Paris holds secrets—curious, quirky, and quietly astonishing facts that even many Parisians don’t know.

In Paris, January 1943, 230 French women resisters were rounded up and sent on a train to Auschwitz - the only train, in the four years of the German occupation, to take women of the resistance to a death camp. The youngest was a schoolgirl of 15, the eldest a farmer’s wife of 68; there were among them teachers, biochemists, sales girls, secretaries, housewives and university lecturers. The women turned to one another, finding solace and strength in friendship and shared experience.

Written in the form of a letter to a Frenchman, Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France is an impassioned attack on the French Revolution and its hasty destruction of the Church, the old elites, and the Crown. Burke tackles the new republic and its allegiance to principles such as liberty and equality, as well as its failure to recognize the complexities of human nature, society, and wisdom accumulated over time, contending that gradual change and adjustment is far better than immediate upheaval.

Saviez-vous que la Lutèce des origines ne se situait pas sur l'île de la Cité, mais à Nanterre ? Que les derniers combattants gaulois massacrés par les Romains reposent sous la tour Eiffel ? Que les vestiges de la première cathédrale de Paris se trouvent sous le parking d'un immeuble moderne du Ve arrondissement ?

The twentieth century is usually seen as "the century of total war." But as the historian David A. Bell argues in this landmark work, the phenomenon actually began much earlier, in the era of muskets, cannons, and sailing ships—in the age of Napoleon. In a sweeping, evocative narrative, Bell takes us from campaigns of "extermination" in the blood-soaked fields of western France to savage street fighting in ruined Spanish cities to central European battlefields where tens of thousands died in a single day. Between 1792 and 1815, Europe plunged into an abyss of destruction.