Tom Holland draws extensively on the great work by the father of history, Herodotus, whose The Histories is a searching, if often discursive, investigation into the roots and causes of the war between Persia and Greece

The work of the French Renaissance philosopher offers wisdom applicable to modern politics

We ought to read them; we want to; we will. Next summer, or winter, when time indoors lends a circumstantial hand. Or next year. And so the pile grows, to be added to deathbed regrets

The battle between Satan and the forces of good has preoccupied writers for aeons

The seminal Spanish novel and its author are difficult to pin down in translation and history

Alexei Navalny’s demise spotlights how death and displacement are portrayed in the media and in literature

This era in politics is crying out for a great chronicler in the mould of the American writer

Scepticism has dogged stories of exploration from Ancient Greece through to Apollo XI