9 historical non-fiction recommended reads: interesting, inspiring and powerful

Historical non-fiction might not be your go-to, or maybe it’s a genre of literature you immediately reach for. Either way, I’ve put together a list of 9 books across many different topics and periods in time; you’re bound to find at least one here that piques your interest!

For me, historical non-fiction is a fairly new obsession. I’ve always loved history (I even studied it at A-Level, which turned out to be a game of two halves. One where I totally flunked the exam, and the other where I came out on top, go figure!) and I think everyone has that one area that they naturally gravitate towards. My go-to is usually World War II related. But I also really enjoy something a bit dark and quirky across the whole timeline of human events (heck, even before then because dinosaurs are THE BEST and who doesn’t love dinosaurs?)

Interestingly, I do prefer to listen to historical non-fiction with an audiobook. Otherwise it takes me a loooooong time to get through a title. (See: ‘Blitzed’)

So here’s the list! These books have been read by me or Sophie, or they came highly recommended to me and I’ve got them on my TBR ready to go.

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1. ‘The Royal Art of Poison’ by Eleanor Herman - I read this earlier this year (on Audible) and I LOVED it. My biggest takeaway? We as a human race have been a bunch of dirty grubby things for most of our time here on earth… Also, poison is silly.
   The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots.
   
   

2. ‘The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper’ by Hallie Rubenhold - Sophie’s review of this is a 5 star “My goodness, this is BRILLIANT.” Jack the Ripper has always been an interesting figure for me (more on the “dark” spectrum than “quirky”) but I think it’s more than high time that the women involved held the spotlight. Jack, who? Don’t know her.
   Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women.
   
   

3. ‘Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany’ by Norman Ohler, Shaun Whiteside (Translator) - I’m actually still reading this one! I have a physical copy and it takes me longer to process the information in this format. But that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it! In fact, I would recommend this book to anyone who asked (and maybe to some who didn’t). The most stunning thing about this is that it’s utterly bonkers… and yet it makes so much sense.
   Ohler's book is the first to show how the entire Nazi regime was permeated with drugs - cocaine, heroin, morphine and methamphetamines, the last of these crucial to troops' resilience and partly explaining German victory in 1940. Ohler is explicit that drugs cannot explain Third Reich ideology, but their promiscuous use impaired and confused decision-making, with drastic effects on Hitler and his entourage, who, as the war turned against Germany, took refuge in ever more poorly understood cocktails of stimulants. This chemical euphoria changes how we should think about the Nazi high command and its ability to understand the situation it found itself in by 1944-45.
   
   

4. ‘Hidden Figures’ by Margot Lee Shetterly - Have you SEEN this film? No? I’ll wait… Ok, good. The movie is an absolute gem. I adore it. But I still haven’t read the book! And I really want to change that.
   Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts, into space.
   
   

5. ‘Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen’ by Greg Jenner - This went on my Audible wishlist as soon as I saw it. It’s quite a new release, and I feel like I’ll be spending my credit on it this month. It is time. Sophie said “Smart, engaging and funny history non-fic that traces the cult of celebrity from the Romans to now, and asks what really makes a famous person a celebrity.”
   In this ambitious history, that spans the Bronze Age to the coming of Hollywood's Golden Age, Greg Jenner assembles a vibrant cast of over 125 actors, singers, dancers, sportspeople, freaks, demigods, ruffians, and more, in search of celebrity's historical roots. He reveals why celebrity burst into life in the early eighteenth century, how it differs to ancient ideas of fame, the techniques through which it was acquired, how it was maintained, the effect it had on public tastes, and the psychological burden stardom could place on those in the glaring limelight.
   
   

6. ‘The Radium Girls’ by Kate Moore - This one came highly recommended to me. There’s something about this kind of story that just keeps repeating itself, and it’s usually women who have to bear the brunt of it. Puts a different spin on that green light in ‘The Great Gatsby’…
   1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous – the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.
   As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive – their work – was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering – in the face of death – these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
   
   

7. ‘Chernobyl: A History of a Tragedy’ by Serhii Plokhy - The ‘Chernobyl’ series (HBO, Sky) is immaculate. Utterly terrifying and really quite astounding that they even TRIED to cover it up. I knew I had to read more, so I snapped up this book. It’s still on my TBR (I want to finish ‘Blitzed’ first) but I’m really looking forward to it.
   On 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.

   In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a tragedy, Chernobyl is the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story.
   
   

8. ‘Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature’ by Shelley DeWees - Sophie said “An enjoyable and enlightening jaunt in to the forgotten women of 18th and 19th Century literary Britain.”
   Jane Austen and the Brontës endure as British literature’s leading ladies (and for good reason)—but were these reclusive parsons’ daughters really the only writing women of their day? A feminist history of literary Britain, this witty, fascinating nonfiction debut explores the extraordinary lives and work of seven long-forgotten authoresses, and asks: Why did their considerable fame and influence, and a vibrant culture of female creativity, fade away? And what are we missing because of it?
   
   

9. ‘Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life’ by Samantha Ellis - sigh Look. Sophie and I will forever debate our favourite Bronte. It’s Charlotte for me, and Anne for her. We have a comfortable middle ground when it comes to Emily. Anyway, regardless of any bias, this is still a book very much a worthwhile dive into. “Utterly glorious. Essential reading for any Bronte fan, especially if you're one who disparages Anne. You've got a lot to learn.”
   Anne Brontë is the forgotten Brontë sister, overshadowed by her older siblings -- virtuous, successful Charlotte, free-spirited Emily and dissolute Branwell. Tragic, virginal, sweet, stoic, selfless, Anne. The less talented Brontë, the other Brontë.

   Or that's what Samantha Ellis, a life-long Emily and Wuthering Heights devotee, had always thought. Until, that is, she started questioning that devotion and, in looking more closely at Emily and Charlotte, found herself confronted by Anne instead.
   Take Courage is Samantha's personal, poignant and surprising journey into the life and work of a woman sidelined by history. A brave, strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time -- and her more celebrated siblings -- and who has much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world.
   
   Do you have a historical non-fiction book to recommend? Let us know!