W B Bartlett: 13 books

In the space of 200 hundred years, the Mongols built the greatest empire that the world had ever known and then lost it again. At its greatest extent, the lands they held dwarfed those under the control of Rome at its prime whilst the conquests of its founder, Genghis Khan, outshone those of even...

The Third Crusade of Richard the Lionheart is well known but the build-up to it less so. Downfall of the Crusader Kingdom is a story of intrigue, plot and counter-plot, and the abuse of power culminating in the most decisive battle of the medieval epoch, the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Hattin is one...

British history is rich in enthralling stories: pivotal moments that changed the future of the country; moments of drama, suspense, intrigue. Go right to the heart of the action of the Titanic disaster. Titanic steamed through the darkness of the night, her sharp prow cutting through the chill water...

British history is rich in enthralling stories: pivotal moments that changed the future of the country; moments of drama, suspense, intrigue. Dive right into the heart of the action of the bouncing bomb attack on German dams in the Second World War. And then the lights were switched on and Gibson...

In recent times, globalisation has made the world more interdependent than ever before. W. B. Bartlett’s masterly new history of the world narrates the great – and small – events that have shaped the planet on which we live. The great religions, civilisations, peoples and empires of the world...

The so-called "Assassins"—men who had no fear of death and were trained to kill—are one of the most spectacular legends of medieval history. Since the tales of Marco Polo and others, the myths surrounding them have been fantastically embellished and the truth has become ever more obscure....

Although the answer appears obvious, there is far more to the sinking of the Titanic than is popularly understood. On 10 April 1912 Titanic - the largest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world - left Southampton on her maiden voyage. The only headlines she expected to make were on her triumphant...

The Viking Conquest of England in 1016 – a far tougher and more brutal campaign than the Norman Conquest exactly half a century later – saw two great warriors, the Danish prince Cnut and his equally ruthless English opponent King Edmund Ironside, fight an epic campaign. Cnut sailed in two hundred...

A major new history of the disaster that weaves into the narrative the first-hand accounts of those who survived. It was twenty minutes to midnight on Sunday 14 April, when Jack Thayer felt the Titanic lurch to port, a motion followed by the slightest of shocks. Seven-year old Eva Hart barely noticed...

It was not long before midnight on 17 May 1943 when the inhabitants of Gunne, the German village close to the Mohne Dam, heard the airraid warnings. It was widely regarded as a precautionary measure, but ninety minutes later, an immense tidal-wave was roaring down the valley towards them. Guy Gibson,...

The Crusades continue to exert a fascination as a story of perceived gallantry and battles against impossible odds. Yet what is less often considered is their effect on the Holy Land, and in particular the response of the Muslim world to the invasions of west European Crusaders. By a previously divided...

The Zulu War grabs attention in a way that no other of Queen Victoria's "Little Wars" does. It is a story rich in the extremes of human experience: gallantry, cowardice, savagery, hubris, and sheer, stark terror amongst others. The way the campaign unfolded was a consequence of the actions...

Henry V, King of England and claimant to the throne of France, looked out across the field of Agincourt, the site of a remarkable victory, but there were few scenes of glory that met his eyes. Heaps of the dead and dying, the cream of French chivalry, were piled high. The stench of death permeated...