An unforgettable journey into Cold War espionage, this is a breakthrough book in intelligence writing, drawing on CIA operational cables. Hoffman reveals CIA tradecraft tricks and chilling insight into the Cold War spy game between Washington and Moscow that has erupted anew under Vladimir Putin. The story pulses with a dramatic tension of running an agent in Soviet-era Moscow where the KGB is ubiquitous and CIA officers and Russian assets are prey. January 1977. While the Chief of the CIA's Moscow station fills his petrol tank, a stranger drops a note into the car. In the years that follow, that stranger, Adolf Tolkachev, becomes one of the West's most valuable spies. At enormous risk he and his handlers conduct clandestine meetings across Moscow using spy cameras, disguises and secret codes to elude the KGB in its own backyard, until a shocking betrayal puts them all at risk. 391pp, paperback, 16 pages of archive photos.

The author has written a great number of books on the Roman world over the last 30 years and was part of Channel 4's archaeology series Time Team for 15 years. This is his richly researched, detailed and plausible portrait, bang up to date with all the latest archaeological finds, a 2021 paperback sub-titled 'Living, Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army.' He provides a remarkably precise picture of how the men were armed and billeted, what they ate, drank, wore, how they were promoted or punished, how they built their great, straight roads, and what they did for sexual relief. The Roman Army was the greatest fighting machine the ancient world produced, which depended on soldiers not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers and control the seas, but also to act as the engine of the state. Roman legionaries and auxiliaries came from across the Roman world and beyond and served as tax collectors, policeman, surveyors, civil engineers and if they survived, in retirement as civic worthies, craftsmen and politicians. Some even rose to become emperors. Through the words of Roman historians and those of the men themselves through their religious dedications, tombstones and even private letters and graffiti, Guy de la Bedoyere throws open a window on how the men, their wives and their children lived, from bleak frontier garrisons to guarding the emperor in Rome. A ringside seat to history, we see them fighting over the emperors' wars, mutinying over pay, marching in triumphs and throwing their weight around in the streets. 506pp, paperback with 16 pages of colour plates.

The exquisite calligraphy and letters of the Arabic alphabet are explained in this thorough and illuminating guide. Writing styles and the alphabet presents an understanding of a culture and civilisation that throughout the centuries has been linked to the secular and religious worlds of Islam. One of the world's major forms of writing, it is also the language of the Qur'an and in the very first verse, reading and writing with the calamus or reed pen are praised as the source of all knowledge, and all spiritual or scientific paths of change. From this text has developed a reverence for books and a love of writing. In this intriguing book the history and meaning of each letter of the alphabet is given as well as its cultural, religious and philosophical significance. There are some 300 two-colour (green and black) and black and white pictures of the letters, their variants, and calligraphic adaptations, showing that Arabic script is both and art form and a means of communication. For linguists, graphic designers, collectors of Islamic art and also a handy reference for travellers wishing to become familiar with the rudiments of the alphabet. 180pp, large softback, illus.

The bedroom, or "chambre", is where life begins and ends, and this highly readable translation brings a prize-winning French social history to an English-speaking readership. The bedroom of the Sun King Louis XIV at Versailles was the epitome of magnificence, both as a theatrical setting in which visiting ambassadors had to stop at the edge of the carpet in front of the bed, and also as the altar on which the elevation of the monarch to quasi-divine status took place. His wives and mistresses were accorded sumptuous apartments nearby. For the aristocracy, separate rooms continued to be the norm, but for the bourgeoisie the conjugal bedroom became customary after 1840, following the unusual example of the uxorious Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert. Hygiene and safety were an issue even for wealthy couples, but the arrival of running water finally made the chamber pot redundant and electricity eliminated the hazard of candles. In total contrast, the 18th century poor might sleep on hay in large communal areas, often mingling with animals, or if there was a bed it would accommodate several people. No-one wants to live like this: the desire for personal space is universal and humanity has been ingenious in devising ways of achieving privacy for sleep, sex, sickness, prayer, meditation, reading and writing. Virginia Woolf summed it up in the title of her book A Room of One's Own. The author notes that preparing for sleep is hedged round with rituals, while the act of sleeping may invite nightmares and fantasies. For the insomniac, there are waking fears engendered by creaking floorboards or simple silence. Women's rooms, workers' rooms, hotel rooms, servants' rooms are considered alongside the whole range of life experience enclosed by the "chambre". 371pp.

We know our Bibliophile readers very well and this gruesome history of Britain's most brutal punishment will sell out fast. The history of gibbeting is the story of hanging of criminals in a body shaped metal cage as a warning and as a form of justice. From the folklore of live gibbettings to the eerie historical documenting of this weird post-execution tradition, the book looks at how and why society has dealt with murderers and other serious criminals in this way using case studies. It looks at how the introduction of the Murder Act in 1752 shaped our relationship with gibbeting for years to come. Chapters include Infamy, Thieves and Pirates, That's Entertainment, The Gibbet as A Landmark, No Deterrent, The Decline of the Gibbet and A Modern Fascination where gibbet cages remain on display in museums all over the country. Sometimes it was not the whole body but body parts as a form of this horrific torture, a gruesome spectacle where the body was placed in a tight cage of chains or irons that fitted the body perfectly and then was hung from a height of 20-30 feet on a wooden post. Gibbet cages were made individually and no two were the same and none was removed before the body had decayed and all that was left was bones and dust. One example is of Edward Hewison who in 1379 was a private in the Earl of Northumberland's Light Horse, tried and convicted of raping Louisa Bently in a field on the way to York as Louisa was walking to work. Hewison was executed at York Castle and afterwards his body was hung upon a gibbet in the field where the offence had taken place. There is no mention of Louisa's murder in any reports, only the rape, which makes it a highly unusual case of gibbeting. An uncomfortable sidelong glance at our ancestors and what they did. 150pp, illus.
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Despite the attention dedicated to castles, siege warfare is often given little more than a token chapter in books on these strongholds or medieval warfare more generally and little has been written since 1992. Since 2019, Israeli-led excavations are underway at Arsuf and Montfort, and French teams worked at a number of Syrian strongholds, the crusader town of Caesarea and excavations at Belvoir. Excavations in Syria the citadels of Aleppo and Damascus and countless other strongholds including Gaza and Jaffa, already lost to history, while Crac and others have been damaged during the course of wars in the last 50 years, adding urgency in what is still a volatile region prone to conflict. Sieges played a role in the crusades and the famous battles fought between the Franks and the Muslims. Fulton's graphic, wide-ranging book considers the history of siege warfare in the Holy Land from every angle - tactics and technology, fortifications, composition of the opposing armies and strategy at each stage of the conflict on either side. The differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western traditions are explored, as is the impact of the shifting balance of power in the region. He looks at truces, rapid attack, deception and negotiation, transfer of knowledge, walls and towers, entrances and concludes with an overview of the Siege of Acre 1291, a list of sieges, rulers and their reigns and a glossary. There are ten regional maps including Sinai, Egypt and Cyprus and further maps on major battles and Saladin's campaigns in Palestine 1187 and Syria 1188. Plus plans and dozens of images, graphs and tables. 344 large glossy pages, colour.

From the New York Times, 4th July 1857: 'Brick-bats, stones and clubs were flying thickly round, and from the windows in all directions, and the men ran wildly about brandishing firearms. Wounded men lay on the sidewalks and were trampled upon. Now the rabbits would make a concerted rush and force their antagonists up Baynard Street to the Bowery. Then the fugitives, being reinforced, would turn on their pursuers...' The scene was set for a classic Western showdown on a dusty main street, a sheriff backed by townspeople facing down a gang of heavily armed hired gunslingers. Someone drew first and a few minutes later ten men were dead or dying and several more suffered gunshot wounds. The hired guns fled. This was in the West Virginia mining town of Matewan in 1920. By contrast, the more celebrated gunfight at the OK Corrall in Tombstone lasted 60 seconds and left three men dead. Matewan was not an aberration. It was the era of the post-Civil War Wild West and it can be argued that it was the most dangerous place to be in the East. Race wars with lynchings and massacres, heavily armed confrontation between infant trade unionism and the forces of capitalism, murderous feuds between corrupt lawmen and the early Mafia were the confrontations in which the US Government bombed and marginalised their own citizens. The law was twisted for private ends, and 'fake news' became the norm. Popular historian Ian Hernon turns his practiced reporter's eye to a forgotten chapter in America's history of the crowded industrial cities of the Eastern United States with their poverty and exploitation. Some surprising facts emerge such as the main centre for horse rustling was not Wyoming but New York at the beginning of the last century, and black townships were bombed from the air before the Civil Rights Movement took hold. Jam packed full of great stories, educational and entertaining. 320pp, 16 pages of illustrations.

Sub-titled 'The Queen Who Challenged Rome and Conquered Eternity', more than a muse and greater than a myth, Cleopatra was ruler, lover, diplomat and icon. The last Queen of Egypt lived less than 40 years and yet her legacy has spanned centuries. Shakespeare gave Cleopatra speech. Michelangelo gave Cleopatra a face. Elizabeth Taylor gave Cleopatra a voice, but who was she really? Alberto Angela travels back in time to uncover the woman who shaped the ancient world. At just 20 years of age she was already one of the most notorious women in Rome - a wife, mother and more importantly Queen of an ever-expanding empire. We follow young Cleopatra from sitting in her makeup chair, basking in the glamour of her gilded residence to commanding her own fleet alongside her lover Mark Antony on the story Mediterranean, risking shipwreck for strategic victory. The book celebrates her beauty, charisma and ground-breaking leadership and ably reconstructs the epic Ancient Egypt that made her who she is, teeming with political intrigue, forbidden romance and unforgettable battles. Here is the Battle of Philippi, and the Battle of Actium and the dawn of an empire and how she developed an extraordinary talent for strategy in the field of geopolitics and at the same time managed to seduce and conquer some of Rome's greatest men like Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra was present at the exact stage when the long history of the kingdoms of Egypt including the pharaohs ended, and that of the Roman Empire began through the principate of Augustus. The book focusses specifically on the 14 year period between March 44BC and August 30BC and beings with six important names connected to power - Caesar, Cassius, Brutus, Mark Antony, Octavian and Cleopatra against the backdrop of three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa, from the River Nile to the mountainous expanses of Armenia, from Cleopatra's palaces to Caesar's home, from the Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Roman Senate, from the Greek coast to the arid areas of the Middle East. The narrative style helps breathe life into actual, experienced history preserved by precious ancient texts and plausible reconstructions, archaeological data and in parts fictionalised but based on faithful historical location and customs of the time. Enjoy the book. 426pp.

The Indian and Pacific oceans constitute a forgotten quarter of this planet, brought here together perhaps for the first time in a sustained work of history by the Cambridge academic. The decades straddling the late 18th and early 19th centuries, called the 'Age of Revolutions', traditionally uncovers an Atlantic triangle of grand defence including the American Revolution, the French Revolution and revolts in the Caribbean and then independence movements in Latin America in the early 19th century. Among what was made anew are the organisation of politics, the conception of equality and rights, the mechanics of governance and empire, the status of labour and enslaved people, the workings of technology and science and the characterisations of nation and self. The intention of this history is to turn the story of the dawn of our times inside out and insist on the critical significance of the people and places in this oceanic tract. A sequence of voices across the sea embody an energetic indigenousness: Pacific Islander, Maori, Aboriginal Australian, Arab, Qasimi, Omani, Parsi, Javanese, Burmese, Chinese, Indian, Sinhalese, Tamil, Malay, Mauritian, Malagasy and Khoisan perspectives come into view. These and other peoples took passage as sailors, partners, fighters, labourers and travellers in these decades of unprecedented globalisation. Great empires, political units, kingdoms were realigned or organised from Oman to Tonga and Sri Lanka and venerable Eurasian empires were transformed at their maritime frontiers. Here is heavy militarised British Colonial states as the Empire spread with Allies and collaborators and sought to neutralise or adopt the ideas, people, structures and modes of organisation which arose from the age of revolutions from 1790 to 1850. Superbly illustrated throughout, very useful Timeline and series of maps. 468pp, 2020 first edition.

'The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite' is the sub-title of this first English translation of the Egyptian Rite ever published. It tells the extraordinary story of a cult figure of European society in the tumultuous years leading up to the French Revolution. An alchemist, healer and Freemason, Count Alessandro Cagliostro inspired devotion and ridicule as well as novels by Alexander Dumas, a drama by Goethe, and Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute'. Cagliostro's sincere belief in magical powers including immortality, conferred by his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, won him fame but made him dangerous enemies too. His celebrated travels through the Middle East and the capitals of Europe ended abruptly in Rome in 1789 where he was arrested by Inquisition and condemned to death for heresy. The authors examine the case made against him, that he was an impostor as well as a heretic, and find that the Roman Church and history itself have done Cagliostro a terrible injustice. They draw on new documentary evidence to prove him a genuine visionary and a true champion of Freemasonry, and his teachings have much to reveal to us today not just of the secrets of Freemasonry, but of the mysterious hostility the movement continues to attract. Cagliostro is remembered for his alchemical operations and there is an account of how on the 7th June 1780 he transmuted base metal into silver during a visit to a Masonic Lodge in Warsaw - see page 46. With 16 pages of photos, many in colour, there are 36 plates in total plus 11 illustrations including the magical consecration of a sword from the Key of Solomon, Vitruvian Man by da Vinci, the Alphabet of the Magi, and Cagliostro's Magical Seals. 317pp in large softback by the famous occult publisher Watkins.