Arabs by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Tim Mackintosh-Smith has spent most of his adult life in the Yemen and the rest of it tracking down Ibn Battuta, the greatest travel writer of the Muslim world. In Arabs (Yale, £25), he concentrates his attention more on language and culture than religion or empire and gives us a dazzling, virtuoso chronicle of 3,000 years of Arabic achievement.
King of the World by Philip Mansel
Philip Mansel grew up in the heyday of the Marxist stranglehold over academic history, so he went his own way, wrote a dozen books and, in the process, helped to establish the Society for Court Studies and the Levantine Heritage Foundation. King of the World (Allen Lane, £30), his life of Louis XIV, has no doctrinal axe to grind and is informed by a restless personal quest.
Was this man, who created the highest expression of French culture, a genius or a self-obsessed monster? Was this king, who struck out at Brussels, Genoa, Siam, the Dutch and the Huguenots because he wanted respect, a terrorist? How do we match these murderous actions with his exuberant zest for life — for building, dancing, gambling, hunting and planning the most wonderful gardens and entertainments?
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
I come from the last generation of British schoolchildren taught about the victories of Robert Clive in the history classroom. There followed an embarrassed silence of 50 years—so much so that a recent history graduate who came to work for us, in proud possession of a first-class degree, had never heard his name.
This whitewashing of history was mirrored in a different form within the classrooms of India, which maintained an active indifference to the Mughal Emperors, despised as alien conquerors. All of which makes William Dalrymple’s achievement more astonishing. The Anarchy (Bloomsbury, £30), which charts the rise of the East India Company, is the capstone in a succession of four books with which he has single-handedly managed to get the British to acknowledge the violence and rapacity of their history, as well as relishing the demonic energy and linguistic ability of many of their ancestors, and even reviving within India a scholarly interest in the Mughals.
Violencia by Jason Webster
Jason Webster first wrote a trilogy of travel books exploring Spain, followed by a series of detective novels. He has poured all he has learnt on the ground, together with his story-telling fluency, into Violencia (Constable, £25), explaining recurrent themes, enduring strengths and divisions within the complex landscape of Spanish history.
Through bite-sized chapters that allow us to enjoy the individual stories, he shows us that the Spanish experience, from Crusaders and the first colonial empire to ethnic cleansing and the clash of Fascism against Communism in the Civil War, should not be seen in isolation, but as a prelude to what Europe would soon endure.
Islamic Empires by Justin Marozzi
Justin Marozzi has ridden camels across the Sahara, written illuminating accounts of Hero-dotus, Tamerlane and Baghdad and advised the governments of Somalia, Libya and Iraq. In Islamic Empires (Allen Lane, £25), comprising 15 pocket portraits of cities of the Muslim world at a crunch point in their history, he gives us a vivid, candid and entertaining immersion into a complex subject.
The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia
David Abulafia is a professor in landlocked Cambridge, but empowered by a Sephardic ancestry that links him with Andalusian poets, Kabbalist mystics and the docks of Essaouira in Morocco. He also has a genius for reframing history, for shaking our assumptions and placing new peoples and concepts under the limelight.
In The Boundless Sea (Allen Lane, £35) Prof Abulafia gives us the story of the world as shaped by the pulse of its maritime trade routes. They also rise and fall just like an empire, but in this narrative, subtitled ‘A Human History of the Oceans’, our heroes are merchants, captains, carpenters and navigators, drawn from a rich cast of liminal sea peoples: Polynesians, Portuguese, Phoenicians, Pisans and Frisians.
In the Name of God by Selina O’Grady
Selina O’Grady’s In the Name of God (Atlantic Books, £25) is a tightly focused study of why various regimes have practised tolerance, usually by autocrats for the most cynical reasons of state, set against the politics of intolerance — and persecution of a minority — that has invariably been led by charismatic leaders advancing a populist, if not a patriotic, cause.
Jason Goodwin: In memory of Norman Stone, my tutor, guide, world traveller — and friend
Jason Goodwin pays tribute to an old friend and mentor.
Nine books about cooking that make perfect Christmas gifts for foodies, from Nigel Slater's latest to a book that 'deserves a Michelin star'
Leslie Geddes-Brown devours the latest cookery books to hit shelves, from a study of Italian food to a tour of
Credit: Alamy
Jason Goodwin: 'We have books all over the floors and carpets on the furniture'
Our columnist Jason Goodwin talks about jam jars, duvets and the books which are taking over his house.
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If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
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Gaze over Cap Ferrat in this four-bedroom French villaIgnore the wind and the rain. Imagine yourself in this hillside home with some of the best views the Mediterranean can offer.
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'It may be vain to think that the past was a cleaner, quieter and kinder place, but it felt pretty decent when you knew your GP and your GP knew you, and milk in glass bottles was delivered every morning'Carla Carlisle is homesick for the olden days, when we didn’t know we had it so good.
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Patrick Galbraith: We are a brilliant and terrible species who messed it up a long time ago — and that means we have to do things we don't want toOur columnist laments the painful decisions on culling wild animals which he argues have to be taken if we're to manage the countryside and maintain biodiversity.
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'From the first page until the last, I was in another country, another world... It was like falling in love''There is beauty and there is poverty, order and corruption' — Carla Carlisle on Karen Blixen and Kenya.
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Carla Carlisle: 'Seamus Heaney deserves a sainthood, as well as his Nobel Prize'Carla Carlisle applauds The Letters of Seamus Heaney and shares how she couldn't wait until Christmas to devour the collection from the late Irish poet
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Carla Carlisle on Martin Amis: The 'passionate, graceful, fierce' writer who scared us, challenged us, and brought us understandingCarla Carlisle pays tribute to the late Martin Amis, who died last month.
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Carla Carlisle: 'Edit your one and precious life. Prepare for Judgement Day. Do it Now.'Carla has been having a bit of a New Year clear-out — albeit one which started last August, and which is NOT going particularly well...
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Jason Goodwin's books of the year 2022Our columnist Jason Goodwin shares the books that have entertained and enlightened him this year.
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'By the time I reached chapter seven I was nauseated by the sheer volume of stuff I owned'Jonathan Self's chance encounter with a book shifts the way he sees his belongings... but how long will his urge to declutter last?
