Looking for something new to read? Browse our non-fiction books for July! Including gripping memoirs, historical stories, and more.
Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations.
These Wild English: a Family, a Class, a Country on Fire
Nicola Wilding
This is the story of one family finding their way through the chaos and crises of modern Britain.
From the working farms of Cumbria to the windswept shores of Kent, Nicola Wilding follows three generations of her family through moments of love, pride, rage and riot as they struggle against dispossession and marginalisation.
Written with tenderness, candour and an eye for beauty amid the mess, this is an unforgettable portrait of a fractured community, class and country searching for meaning and belonging.
Witchland
Marion Gibson
If the witchfinders came to your town, who would you have believed – and what would you have done?
With the English civil wars raging in the background, this work reveals how economic uncertainty, religious extremism and deprivation created the ideal conditions for mass witch-hunting in Britain.
Across the country, fear spread rapidly, and neighbours turned on one another in panic. Women and the poor were especially vulnerable, scapegoated by the powerful looking for someone to blame, and hundreds of witch trials across the country soon followed. The hysteria provided a handbook for similar trials to occur around the world, most famously just a few decades later in Salem.
Moving from village to village, Professor Marion Gibson reveals how accusations grew out of everyday tensions – poverty, grief, and resentment – and how entire communities became involved in the persecution of the innocent.
Churchill’s Queen
Nigel Fletcher
Here is a revelatory exploration of the remarkable relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill, two of Britain’s greatest leaders.
In February 1952, when the young Elizabeth returned to London after her sudden accession to the throne, it was Churchill who was first to greet her as she stepped off the aircraft.
The image was a striking one – an elderly statesman in the twilight of his career paying homage to a young sovereign just embarking on what would become the longest reign in the history of the British monarchy.
He already had a lifetime of experience to share, while she had a lifetime of service still to come. Using previously unpublished material from government files and private archives, this book sheds new light on this historic relationship, revealing how their fruitful collaboration shaped the monarchy and the nation.
Ten Steps to Prevent World War Three
Tobias Ellwood
We are in a cold war, but one unlike anything we’ve seen before. Influence, ignorance and ideology have been weaponised, with USA and China fighting on the global battleground to push their rival visions of the future.
The world is splintering into two competing spheres of influence and it’s no exaggeration to say that we are potentially looking down the barrel of a gun towards global armageddon. Western leaders can no longer be complacent or passive, allowing foreign actors chip away at our political infrastructure and national security.
The stakes could not be higher, but there is a path towards a brighter future. ‘Ten Steps to Prevent World War Three’ draws on a blend of big ideas, personal narrative, lessons from history and geopolitical insights to uncover the mindset and strategies that can build a peaceful global future.
The Land and its People
David Sedaris
Here, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend. He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails.
Throughout these essays – at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound – Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
Eat the Food You Buy: 15 Everyday Ingredients, Endless Delicious Meals
Martyn Odell
You open the fridge after a long day and are faced with a few limp carrots and a sad looking onion, but before you reach for that takeaway menu, STOP! Eat the Food You Buy will show you how to turn the most wasted household ingredients into banging meals.
With ten chapters on veg, five on meat and fish, plus a whole treasure trove of recipes using cupboard essentials, this book is sure to inspire you no matter how bare your fridge looks.
An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial
Sue M. Black
For over forty years, Professor Dame Sue Black has analysed criminal evidence at the highest level. As the UK’s leading forensic scientist, she has stood in court as an expert witness, repeatedly putting her research and reputation on the line, all in the name of justice.
Now in this work she puts forensic science itself on trial. Drawing on shocking real cases and true crime, from historic poisonings to modern sexual offences, Sue Black traces the evolution of forensic science, from early identification methods to more recent breakthroughs such as DNA profiling, Sue’s own vein identification research, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in criminal investigation.
She shows where science has delivered justice, and where failures have led to devastating consequences, including wrongful convictions such as that of Andrew Malkinson, imprisoned for seventeen years for a crime he did not commit.
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