Travelling Heroes: Greeks and their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer, Robin Lane Fox (Penguin)This account of the formation of classical mythology in the eighth century charts how the intrepid seafarers of eighth-century Greece sailed around the Mediterranean, encountering new sights and weaving them into the myths of the gods, monsters and heroes that would become the cornerstone of Western civilization.
Napoleon’s Haemorrhoids, Phil Mason (JR Books)
A series of anecdotes that provide an insight into how chance events have shaped the course of history, from the great sweeps of politics, to chance discoveries that led to great inventions and scientific progress, small mistakes that gave away big crimes and slip-ups that altered sporting history.
The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power and the Obsessions of Henry Wickham, Joe Jackson (Duckworth)The story of the Victorian fortune hunter Henry Wickham who, in 1876, smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of the rainforests of Brazil and delivered them to scientists at Kew Gardens. The seeds were thereafter planted around the world in England’s colonial outposts, giving rise to the great rubber boom of the early 20th century.
The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed (Norton)
The story of the Hemings family, whose blood ties to the third president of America had long been expunged from American history, from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family’s dispersal after Jefferson’s death in 1826.
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