Books & Podcasts

THIS MONTH’S BEST HISTORICAL READS AND LISTENS

Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals

By Emma J Wells Apollo, £40, hardback, 512 pages

This visual guide to 16 of the world’s greatest cathedrals – including Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, the Notre-Dame in Paris, and examples in Wells, York and Westminster – explores the ways in which they represented architectural attempts to connect the human with the divine. Sumptuously presented, with present-day photographs and historical images illuminating each chapter, it’s a fascinating look at how people in the Middle Ages combined spirituality, symbolism, mathematics and monumental toil to create some of history’s grandest buildings.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Story of Russia

By Orlando Figes Bloomsbury, £25, hardback, 368 pages

The way in which Russia has continually reimagined its past is just as important as the past itself. That’s one of the key arguments behind this new history of the nation from leading expert Orlando Figes, which spans its origins to the recent invasion of Ukraine. At once accessible and epic, it features big characters – Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great – and big ideas (Figes is great on the ways in which geography has shaped Russia’s mindset). A great introduction to an enthralling subject.

The Museum of the Wood Age

By Max Adams Apollo, £27.99, hardback, 480 pages

We may, in the west, now live in worlds of glittering steel and plastic, but this tribute to timber places wood firmly back into the story of our development. Focusing on six essential devices, including the wheel, the lever, the pulley and the wedge, Max Adams explores the ways in which trees have been intertwined with centuries of history. As 21st-century technology grows ever more complex, his book also serves as a refreshing paean to the power of both nature and human ingenuity.

A History of Words for Children

By Mary Richards and Rose Blake Thames & Hudson, £14.99, hardback, 96 pages

The power of the word, both written and spoken, is celebrated in this vivid illustrated guide aimed at older children. It’s surprisingly detailed – covering everything from the development of languages to famous inspirational speeches – but leavened throughout by lively visuals and comicbook-esque interludes from figures including Cleopatra and Shakespeare. Complete with a detailed glossary and handy timeline, this is an ambitious, accessible overview of an enormous subject.

The Daughter of Auschwitz

By Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant Quercus, £20, hardback, 352 pages

Tova Friedman was just five years old when she and her family were sent to a Nazi labour camp. Less than a year later, she was in Auschwitz. In this moving, vivid book, written with journalist Malcolm Brabant, Friedman charts the horrors and degradations of the camps, and the extraordinary story of how her family reunited in Poland. As time passes and the opportunities for Holocaust stories to be told diminishes, such accounts only grow in importance, making this both heartbreaking and powerful reading.

FICTION

Woman of Light

By Kali Fajardo-Anstine Corsair, £16.99, hardback, 336 pages Denver, Colorado, 1933. Luz Lopez and her brother Diego live with their aunt in a onebedroom apartment in the city’s downtown district. Soon, however, everything changes, as Diego is forced to flee from a violent mob and Luz is left to make her own way in the world. Complicating matters further, she soon has visions of her family’s indigenous homeland, and of dark forces that put her heritage at risk. This is a rich, evocative novel of secrets, stories and survival.

WHAT TO LISTEN TO...

Each month we bring you three of our favourite podcasts from the BBC and HistoryExtra

Everything you wanted to know about partition

bit.ly/PartitionPod112

The M Museum of Bad Vibes: series one

bbc.in/3oTOsQB

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley: bonus episode

bbc.in/3JYyQ89

This August marked the 75th anniversary of partition, in which British-ruled India was split into two independent countries – at a terrible human cost. Here, Anwesha Roy answers listener questions and tackles common internet search queries about the events of 1947, offering a concise overview of a dark episode in 20th-century history. The heated debates about what to do with museum artefacts taken from cultures and civilisations around the world shows no sign of cooling soon. This new series tackles the subject head on, as Hanna Adan offers a guided tour to four such objects – including a Benin Bronze and a Chinese ancestral tablet – and what they tell us about the wider issues. Here’s a curiosity: Lucy Worsley and Greg Jenner in what’s billed as a ‘bonus episode’ of the former’s Lady Killers series, but is actually an opportunity for the two experts to chat about their historical passions, Jenner’s hit podcast You’re Dead to Me, and more. As an added plus, the pair share their tips for excelling at a history quiz.