History (part 1) Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email
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Ancient history
Hancock, Graham
Heaven's mirror: quest for the lost civilization. 1998. Read by Nigel Graham, 13 hours 30 minutes. TB 12695.
The authors trace a network of sacred sites around the globe. The sites vary from the pyramids and temples of ancient Egypt to the enigmatic statues of Easter Island. It is an odyssey that leads to sunken moments and hidden chambers, a journey through myth and magic, and astounding archaeological revelations. TB 12695.
Hancock, Graham
Fingerprints of the gods: a quest for the beginning and the end. 1995. Read by Nigel Graham, 20 hours. TB 10797.
In this study of mankind's forgotten prehistory, the author reveals signs of an unknown people who flourished during the last ice age - people who had high intelligence, technological sophistication and detailed scientific knowledge of the cosmos before any previously known civilisation. He challenges the dating of archaeological sites, and considers the evidence for the catastrophe that must have occurred to wipe out such a large civilisation. TB 10797.
Helms, Svend
Jawa: lost city of the black desert. 1981. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 7 hours 10 minutes. TB 4150.
From 1972-76 Svend Helms directed an excavation in the north-east Jordan, an arid desert of black basalt. He describes the discovery of an urban settlement of considerable complexity, 22 acres in size, which existed there as long ago as the fourth millennium B.C. Interesting questions are raised: who were the Jawaites? Why did they choose to settle in such an area? How did they learn their hydrological skills? Why the town was suddenly abandoned? TB 4150.
Stone, I F
The trial of Socrates. 1988. Read by George Hagan, 11 hours 30 minutes. TB 7576.
A new look at the death of a secular saint becomes the story also of the decline of democracy in Athens four centuries before Christ. The author sets out to discover how a so-called free society, such as existed in Athens, could try and condemn to death its most renowned philosopher. TB 7576.
Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian Wars. 1972. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 22 hours. TB 110.
A participant's classic account of the war between Athens and Sparta (431-404 BC), which destroyed the hope of Greek unity; and his scrutiny of human nature in politics. TB 110.
British history - ancient and medieval
Bevan, Bryan
King Richard II. 1990. Read by John Livesey, 6 hours 10 minutes. TB 8960.
This new analysis by Bryan Bevan offers an antidote to previous unflattering portraits. He relates how Richard II rose from behind the shadow of his father, "The Black Prince", to rule England through 22 years of great political, social and economic change. TB 8960.
Birley, Anthony
The people of Roman Britain. 1979. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 10 hours 38 minutes. TB 4596.
An authoritative description of the roles taken by the Roman governors, and of the officers and soldiers of the garrison as well as the indigenous population, urban and rural, merchants, craftsmen, slaves and freemen. Professor Birley shows the impact of Christianity and the effect of the withdrawal of Rome in 409. TB 4596.
Bryant, Arthur
Set in a silver sea: the island peoples from earliest times to the fifteenth century. 1984. Read by John Richmond, 22 hours 56 minutes. TB 5274.
The first of a Continuous narrative of our own island story beginning with the ancient stone circles, touching on the Roman occupation and King Alfred, then on in a broad sweep through the Middle Ages. He writes not only of kings but tells how ordinary people lived and thought and gained their freedom. TB 5274.
Chancellor, John
The life and times of Edward I. 1981. Read by John Richmond, 5 hours 27 minutes. TB 4004.
The life of Edward I was happy and successful - privately (in his marriage to Eleanor of Castile), on the battlefield and as a legal reformer. TB 4004.
Duggan, Alfred
The King of Athelney. 1961. Read by Anthony Parker, 12 hours 5 minutes. TB 1208.
The life of Alfred, soldier and Christian King of Wessex, who dedicated his lonely life to driving out the heathen invaders and laying the foundations of good law. TB 1208.
Laing, Lloyd
The origins of Britain. 1980. Read by Robin Holmes, 7 hours 25 minutes. TB 3961.
The path of man's occupation of Britain from the scattered pockets of habitation in the earliest Palaeolithic period through to his growing domination of the landscape evident in the late Bronze Age. TB 3961.
Potter, Jeremy
Good King Richard? an account of Richard III and his reputation. 1983. Read by Tom Crowe, 11 hours 1 minute. TB 5050.
Richard III, the so-called "last English King of England" and the wicked uncle of tradition, is perhaps our most controversial monarch. Was he as evil as Tudor chronicles stated, and if he wasn't why do some historians go on saying he was? Written to mark the 500th anniversary of his accession to the throne, this is a history of his reputation. TB 5050.
Pryor, Francis
Seahenge: new discoveries in prehistoric Britain. 2001. Read by Jon Cartwright, 12 hours 20 minutes. TB 12795.
In the spring of 1998, a circle of prehistoric timbers exposed by the receding tide, was found projecting from the sands of a Norfolk beach. The site, soon to become known as Seahenge would prove to be the most remarkable, controversial and highly publicised archaeological find in Britain for many years. This book is the story of the operation to save the Seahenge timbers; but more than that, it is the story of the archaelogist Frances Pryor's personal quest in search of prehistoric Britain. TB 12795.
Richards, Julian
Meet the ancestors: unearthing the evidence that brings us face to face with the past. 1999. Read by Jon Cartwright, 5 hours 32 minutes. TB 12588.
Archaeologist Julian Richards plays expert detective, unearthing the secrets of the past and piecing together ancient clues to reveal how a series of individuals lived and died. Each chapter focuses on one burial, the story of which unfolds as the excavation and analysis progress. TB 12588.
Rowse, Alfred Leslie
Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses. 1966. Read by Colin Doran, 14 hours. TB 659.
The transition from Medieval to Tudor England as portrayed in history and reflected in literature. TB 659.
Schama, Simon
A history of Britain. 2003. Read by Stephen Thorne, 15 hours 46 minutes. TB 13486.
The first volume in this history of Britain tells the story of Britain from the time of the earliest settlements, discovered in the Orkneys, to the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Each chapter focuses on a major theme. TB 13486.
Weir, Alison
Eleanor of Aquitaine: by the Wrath of God, Queen of England. 2000. Read by Joan Walker, 15 hours 55 minutes. TB 12578.
Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine was one of the leading personalities of the Middle Ages, and also one of the most controversial. Married in turn Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, and was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John. She lived to be 82, and became the virtual ruler of England. TB 12578.
Wood, Michael
In search of the Dark Ages. 1981. Read by Robin Holmes, 10 hours 32 minutes. TB 3979.
The history of Britain from the time of the Romans to the Norman Conquest. TB 3979.
British history - Tudors and Stuarts
Ackroyd, Peter
The life of Thomas More. 1998. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 18 hours. TB 12482.
This account of More's life concentrates upon the essence of the man, who gave his life in the service of the old faith. The paradox which emerges between the successful and ambitious careerist Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII's Court, and the private personality of the man who remained guarded and silent about his spirituality and deep piety, explains why More, regarded as the most brilliant Englishman of his age, has remained an enigma for 500 years. TB 12482.
Dunn, Jane
Elizabeth and Mary: cousins, rivals, queens. 2003. Read by Louise Fryer, 19 hours 25 minutes. TB 13436.
Jane Dunn's double biography Elizabeth and Mary takes as its rich and explosive subject matter the ultimately fatal relationship between Queen Elizabeth I of England and her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. Throughout much of the second half of the 16th century, these two women found themselves queens of their kingdoms and locked in a battle for possession of the British Isles, which only ended with Mary's eventual downfall and execution at Elizabeth's hands in 1586. TB 13436.
Fraser, Antonia
The six wives of Henry VIII. 1992. Read by Patricia Hughes, 22 hours 33 minutes. TB 9603.
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived is how Henry's wives have become identified. Unwilling victims of Henry's obsession, they were rich and feisty characters, who exhibited remarkable degrees of spirit and defiance, and considerable strength and intelligence when women were supposedly possessed of neither. There was rivalry between them, and the jealousy of queens who found themselves abandoned, and the sexual jealousy of a king who discovered himself betrayed. TB 9603.
Fraser, Antonia
Cromwell, our chief of men. 1973. Read by John Richmond, 42 hours 30 minutes. TB 2406.
The text looks at Britain's most famous soldier-statesman, a man about whom historians still enjoy a debate and the author attempts here a scrupulously fair portrait of the man that dismisses the stereotyped view of Oliver Cromwell as an ambitious and hypocritical tyrant. TB 2406.
Fraser, Antonia
King Charles II. 1979. Read by John Westbrook, 25 hours 48 minutes. TB 5463.
The life story of possibly the best loved of all English monarchs from his youth when, as their "Black Boy", he was born to reconcile the divided world, on through the execution of his father and exile, to the Restoration and the many enigmas of his reign. TB 5463.
Fraser, Antonia
The gunpowder plot: terror & faith in 1605. 1996. Read by Frances Jeater, 14 hours 14 minutes. TB 11022.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is one of the most commemorated events in English history. Yet this astonishing episode remains shrouded in mystery and the subject of passionate argument. The central aim of this book is to explain why there should have been a plot at all, and to understand why the courageous, idealistic, but terrifyingly misguided conspirators risked their lives for what they believed to be the cause of God and their country. TB 11022.
Guy, John Alexander
My heart is my own: the life of Mary Queen of Scots. 2004. Read by Greg Wagland, 23 hours 23 minutes. TB 14770.
To some she was a murderer, an adulteress, and a traitor. To others she was courageous and principled, a heroine and a martyr. In this biography John Guy returns to the archives to explode the myths and correct the inaccuracies in the dramatic life of Mary Queen of Scots. TB 14770.
Loades, D M
Mary Tudor: a life. 1989. Read by Robert Ashby, 15 hours 24 minutes. TB 8239.
Apart from King John, Mary Tudor had the worst reputation of any English monarch. She was seen as a ruthless and religious fanatic. The central question in this book is how did this pious and gentle woman arouse an antipathy that still survives until now.
TB 8239.
Milton, Giles
Big chief Elizabeth: how England's adventurers gambled and won the New World. 2000. Read by Richard Heffer, 10 hours 20 minutes. TB 12608.
In 1585, Queen Elizabeth I was enthralled by captive American Indian Manteo. Manteo was returned to his homeland as Governor, a gamble that resulted in the first English settlement in the New World. TB 12608.
Milton, Giles
Nathaniel's nutmeg. 2000. Read by Stephen Thorne, 11 hours 5 minutes. TB 12609.
In 1616, Nathaniel Courthope arrived on a remote East Indies island on a secret mission - to persuade the islanders to grant a monopoly to England over their nutmeg, a fabulously valuable spice in Europe. Despite being overwhelmed by Dutch forces, his heroism led to the founding of a great city. TB 12609.
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Mayflower: a voyage of war. 2006. Read by Jeff Harding, 12 hours 54 minutes. TB 14846.
From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as author reveals, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic. TB 14846.
Rowse, Alfred Leslie
Eminent Elizabethans. 1983. Read by John Westbrook, 8 hours 36 minutes. TB 5078.
A quintet of Elizabethans, eminent in their own day and characteristic of their age: the Lord Chamberlain, Hudson, loyal soldierly and direct; the Earl of Oxford, a gifted deviant; Bess of Hardwick, a sixteenth century career woman Father Parsons, a Jesuit and godson of the Queen; Sir John Harington who the author feels, was underestimated as a writer. TB 5078.
Schama, Simon.
A history of Britain. 2004. Read by Stephen Thorne, 20hrs 47mins. TB 13487.
To understand what Britain has become we need to know what it has been. The second volume in this history tells the story of Britain from the time of the Civil War. Each chapter focuses on a major theme. TB 13487.