History Feature Titles 2023

Twilight Cities

Lost Capitals of the Mediterranean

By: Katherine Pangonis
Narrated by: Katherine Pangonis
Length: 11 hours 58 minutes

WINNER OF THE 2024 SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD

Its name means 'centre of the world', and since the dawn of history the Mediterranean Sea has formed the shared horizon of innumerable cultures. Here, history has blurred with legend. The glittering surface of the sea conceals the remnants of lost civilisations, wrecked treasure ships and the bones of... Read more

Messalina

A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery

By: Honor Cargill-Martin
Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
Length: 12 hours 55 minutes

This is the story of Messalina – third wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women to have inhabited the Roman world.

The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius, has taken deep root in the Western imagination.... Read more

Idiots, Follies and Misadventures

By: Mikey Robins
Narrated by: Mikey Robins
Length: 11 hours 16 minutes

The history books are full of heroes and villains … but what about all the idiots? Comedian and armchair historian Mikey Robins tells the astonishing story of human stupidity, one idiot at a time.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein

History is full of heroes and villains.... Read more

Forgotten Women

By: Zing Tsjeng
Narrated by: Jacqui Bardelang
Length: 20 hours 9 minutes

'To say this [book] is "empowering" doesn't do it justice. Buy a copy for your daughters, sisters, mums, aunts and nieces - just make sure you buy a copy for your sons, brothers, dads, uncles and nephews, too.' - indy100

'Here's to no more forgotten women.' - Evening Standard

Forgotten Women reaches around the world and its history to rediscover,... Read more

The Nineties

A Book

By: Chuck Klosterman
Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman & Dion Graham
Length: 12 hours 38 minutes

“Born in the mid-nineties but truly a child of the 2000’s, I have always romanticized the nineties. Klosterman uniquely provides a broad but also individual look at my favorite decade. Only having fleeting knowledge of various aspects of the decade- Y2K, OJ Simpson, landlines, watching Friends live- I loved Klosterman’s take and insights on the... Read more

X Marks the Spot

The Story of Archaeology in Eight Extraordinary Discoveries

By: Michael Scott
Narrated by: Michael Scott
Length: 10 hours 12 minutes

Ancient shipwrecks in crystal seas, mythical princesses preserved in ice and astonishing lost rituals - this is the story of archaeology.

Professor Michael Scott uncovers the true stories behind history's most monumental discoveries, unearthing traps, curses and buried treasure along the way. Full of extraordinary characters - from glory hunters... Read more

The Traitor of Colditz

By: Robert Verkaik
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Length: 9 hours 17 minutes

It is the depths of the second world war.
The Germans like to boast that there is 'no escape' from the infamous fortress that is Colditz.
The elite British officers imprisoned there are determined to prove the Nazis wrong and get back into the war.
As the war heats up and the stakes are raised, the Gestapo plant a double-agent inside the prison in... Read more

Twelve Caesars

Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern

The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

By: Mary Beard
Narrated by: Mary Beard
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

This audiobook narrated by bestselling author Mary Beard explores how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book—against a background of today's... Read more

The Invention of Sicily

A Mediterranean History

By: Jamie Mackay
Narrated by: John Lee
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

Sicily has always acted as a gateway between Europe and the rest of the world. Fought over by the Phoenicians and Greeks, the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, and the Spanish and the French for thousands of years, Sicily became a unique melting pot where diverse traditions merged, producing a unique heritage and singular... Read more

A Brief History of Motion

From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next

By: Tom Standage
Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
Length: 8 hours 19 minutes

Tom Standage's fleet-footed and surprising global histories have delighted fans and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Now, he returns with a provocative account of an overlooked form of technology-personal transportation-and explores how it has shaped societies and cultures over millennia.



Beginning around 3,500 BCE with the wheel—a device... Read more

Loot

Britain and the Benin Bronzes

By: Barnaby Phillips
Narrated by: Michael Page
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

In 1897, Britain responded to the killing of a group of officials by razing an empire to the ground. The men had been travelling to the ancient Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, when they were ambushed and killed by local soldiers. Just six weeks later, the British had exacted their revenge, set Benin aflame, exiled the king and annexed... Read more