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A beautifully illustrated Flammarion history of Le Grand Hôtel and Café de la Paix — two Parisian institutions on the Place de l’Opéra since 1862, with a guest list spanning Proust, Wilde, and de Gaulle. An essential celebration of French luxury hospitality and la belle époque art de vivre.

Alison Weir’s sweeping narrative history recovers the powerful women who shaped the Crusades — queens, regents, and noblewomen whose political and military decisions were as consequential as any king’s. A fundamentally different view of medieval history from Britain’s bestselling female historian.

A richly illustrated architectural and cultural history of New York’s most iconic street, from Washington Square to Marcus Garvey Park. William J. Hennessey traces Fifth Avenue’s evolution across two centuries in a book that is both serious historical study and visual pleasure.

Mark Galeotti’s sweeping, engaging exploration of crime across human history — from ancient thieves to modern hackers. A leading security expert traces how criminals and the societies that produce them have always shaped each other, in a work that is both serious scholarship and compulsive reading.

Religions of the World (Lorenz Books) — Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and the indigenous traditions of Africa, Australia, and the Americas — each presented from its origins through its major texts, ritual practices, sacred sites, and contemporary global presence. The most complete one-volume guide to world religion available, with the visual richness and historical depth the subject demands. Published by Lorenz Books.

Europe: A History by Norman Davies (Penguin) — the most ambitious single-volume European history ever published, tracing the continent’s story from the Ice Age to the end of the Cold War across its full diversity: Eastern and Central European dimensions, religious and intellectual history, culture and everyday life, and the deep structural patterns that repeat across centuries. Encyclopaedic in scope, written with literary flair, the essential one-volume European history. Published by Penguin.

The Korean Myths by Heinz Insu Fenkl (Thames & Hudson) — one of the world’s least known and most extraordinary mythological traditions, presented in the most complete and most readable English translation available. Creation myths of dazzling strangeness. Gods in the spaces between heaven and earth. Shamanic rituals persisting from prehistoric times into the contemporary city. Essential for anyone interested in world mythology or Korean culture. Published by Thames & Hudson.

Inside Pompeii: A First-Ever Complete Tour by Peter Connolly (Thames & Hudson) — the first complete visual tour of the entire city frozen at the moment of its destruction in 79 CE, produced in collaboration with the Pompeii Archaeological Park. Every district, every major building, every street — the most comprehensive visual record of Pompeii ever published, and the definitive account of how the city was built, how it functioned, and how its people lived. Published by Thames & Hudson.

Legendary Heroes: Myths and Legends from Around the World by DK — the great hero narratives of world mythology in a single beautifully illustrated volume: Hercules and Achilles, Gilgamesh and Arjuna, Beowulf and Roland, Sun Wukong and Maui. Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, Aztec, African, Chinese, and Pacific traditions all receive generous treatment with the cultural context that makes the heroes’ actions meaningful. Published by DK.

Maps: Their Untold Stories by DK — fifty of the most extraordinary maps ever made, read as cultural documents that reveal as much about their creators and their worlds as about the geography they depict. The Mappa Mundi. The first map to name America. London’s wartime damage from the air. Each map in full colour with expert annotation drawing out the political assumptions, knowledge gaps, and stories encoded in its making. Published by DK.

Ancient Greece by DK — the complete story of the civilisation that created the foundations of the Western world, from the Bronze Age Minoans and Mycenaeans through the classical golden age of Periclean Athens to the Hellenistic world of Alexander the Great. Exceptional photography of sculpture, pottery, and architecture alongside maps, timelines, and profiles of the great figures. Published by DK.

Philosophers Who Changed the World by DK — eighty of the most consequential thinkers in the history of philosophy, Eastern and Western, ancient and contemporary, profiled with biographical depth, clear exposition of key ideas, and a genuine account of why each philosopher’s contribution mattered. Non-Western traditions — Buddhist, Confucian, Indian — receive the same seriousness as the European canon. The ideal companion for a serious philosophical reading list. Published by DK.

The Anthropology Book by DK — the key ideas, major practitioners, and most important debates of anthropology, from the founding questions of cultural relativism through social anthropology, feminist anthropology, and the contemporary debates about decolonising the discipline. Part of the DK Big Ideas Simply Explained series, with profiles of key thinkers from Malinowski and Lévi-Strauss to Margaret Mead. Published by DK.

The World War I Book by DK — the complete history of the First World War, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand through the battles of Verdun and the Somme to the armistice of November 1918. Every phase covered with maps, photographs, profiles of key commanders, and analysis of the tactical and strategic decisions that determined the course of a conflict that killed seventeen million people. Published by DK.