Christopher Hibbert

This masterly biography, written by an outstanding popular historian, concentrates on his intriguing private life. Superb politician, orator, writer and wit, Benjamin Disraeli was - according to Queen Victoria - ?the kindest Minister? she had ever had, who ?reached the top of the greasy pole? [in his own words] despite considerable antisemitism. He enjoyed many scandalous affairs before marrying a widow twelve years older than himself - an extremely...

There can be few military victories so complete, or achieved against such heavy odds, as that won by Henry V on 25 October 1415 against Charles VI's army at Agincourt. In the words of one contemporary French chronicler, it was the 'most disgraceful event that had ever happened to the Kingdom of France'. Christopher Hibbert's concise account draws on the unusual number of contemporary sources available to historians to describe in lucid detail not...