Listmania!
Non-fiction is the New Fiction
Stalin: The Court of the Red TsarStalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Buy new: £6.59 / Used from: £2.00
Thrilling glimpse into the Bolshevik inner circle. The magnates and commisars leap off the page.
A Short History of Nearly EverythingA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.32
Bryson is the best science teacher you never had. Worth it just to have learned about Thomas Midgley.
Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century?Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? by Martin Rees
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £3.40
Gloomy? I should say so. But the astronomer royal is a man to be listened to.
Shopped: The Shocking Power of British SupermarketsShopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman
Buy used from: £0.01
You will never darken the doors of a supermarket ever again. Or at least not without thinking.
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern WorldEmpire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson
Buy new: £6.94 / Used from: £1.24
Proves that you can love a history book written by a Tory.
The Second World WarThe Second World War by John Keegan
Buy new: £11.89 / Used from: £4.29
Proves that you can love a war book written by a Tory.
The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English RockThe Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock by John Harris
Buy new: £6.49 / Used from: £3.49
Harris knows how to tell a story and to set it in context.
Killing for Company: Case of Dennis NilsenKilling for Company: Case of Dennis Nilsen by Brian Masters
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £1.43
You have to understand evil, in my opinion.
What the Label Doesn't Tell YouWhat the Label Doesn't Tell You by Sue Dibb
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This book actually changed my life.
The Battle for the Falklands (Pan Grand Strategy)The Battle for the Falklands (Pan Grand Strategy) by Max Hastings
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £0.56
I was a teenager at the time. I wish I'd understood it as I do now.
The Selling of the PresidentThe Selling of the President by Joe McGinniss
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £2.63
Thanks to Tom Wolfe's New Journalism anthology for the tip-off.
NothingNothing by Paul Morley
Buy used from: £5.90
Now that's what I call a memoir,
Hitler, 1889-1936: HubrisHitler, 1889-1936: Hubris by Ian Kershaw
Buy new: £11.89 / Used from: £7.50
I actually read this on holiday.
The World We're inThe World We're in by Will Hutton
Buy new: £9.09 / Used from: £2.55
Read this on holiday too. Then a Jackie Collins. (True.)
Hawks on Hawks (Directors on Directors)Hawks on Hawks (Directors on Directors) by Howard Hawks
Buy used from: £6.50
Love Hawks. Love McBride. Love this freewheeling book.