This week's new books

Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon, Michael O’Brien (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Early in 1815, Louisa Adams left St. Petersburg and set out on a voyage to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. The story of her journey through Eastern Europe, across the battlefields of Germany, and into France, which was experiencing the tumultuous events surrounding Napoleon’s return from Elba.


I Was Hitler’s Chauffeur, Eric Kempka (Pen & Sword)
A new edition of the memoirs of Erich Kempka, who served as Hitler’s personal driver and as one of the original members of Hitler’s bodyguard. His recollections begin in 1932, when he drove the Fuhrer around Germany during the election campaigns, and conclude with Hitler’s suicide on April 30th, 1945, and Kempka’s own attempt to escape Berlin.


A Tenth of a Second, Jimena Canales (University of Chicago Press)
In the mid-19th century, clocks recognised, for the first time, a tenth of a second. This book charts the history behind this infinitesimal interval and considers the lasting reverberations of this ‘perceptual moment’ for science, philosophy and mass media and its impact on our lives, history and culture.


The King’s Smuggler, John Fox (The History Press)
A biography of Jane Whorwood (1612-84), one of Charles I’s closest confidantes. When the court moved to Oxford, in 1642, she helped the royalist cause by spying for the king and smuggling gold to help pay for his army, and whilst Charles I was held captive, from 1646 to 1649, Whorwood set up correspondence networks, raised money and organised several escape attempts.