New History Books for September 2026

Louis D Hall cast his eyes over a selection of new history books that will be released over the month ahead.

Queens and Kings: An Unusually Personal History by Lucy Worsley

Hodder & Stoughton, 3 Sept 2026

Have you ever wondered what secrets lie beyond the royal walls; the truth behind those whispered schemes that altered the fate of history? And what about the love affairs, the jokes, the fights, the bizarre habits and the anarchist pet monkeys? With a personal touch, historian Lucy Worlsey breathes new life into 1,000 years of British monarchy, making the unreachable rulers of Great Britain appear very human indeed. And with fact being that bit stranger than fiction – this expose shall not disappoint.

As Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Worlsey has worked in some of Britain's most famous royal sites, from Hampton Court to the Tower of London, and even lived in one of them herself. Enticing and scholarly, thorough yet inclusive, this is a great one to keep the late summer heat alive.

Church Crawling: The Secret Lives and Hidden Stories of England’s Churches by Rachel Morley

Bodley Head, 3 September 2026

With rural villages falling into decline and their histories being overshadowed by innovation’s march, there remains one building that stands at the centre, watching silently as time moves on. Rachel Morley’s Church Crawling is a timely, quixotic journey through the picturesque parishes that dot the English countryside. Illuminating ghosts, mysteries, relics, forgotten stories and eccentric characters, this is a poetic and impassioned testament to the stalwart churches that once formed the nucleus of every British community.

Church Crawling is a work for all of us moved by history that feels as alive and close as ever, allowing us to see these buildings like we’ve never done before – one for the historians, the geologists, the romantics, the investigators and theologists alike.

A Dangerous Game: Thomas Cochrane's Life on the Edge by Peter Moore

Chatto & Windus, 3 September 2026

Hired as a mercenary, he defeated the Spanish and won Chile its freedom. Outmanned and outgunned he then captured the largest ship in South American waters, paving the way for Peru’s liberty too. To top it off, this man from Scotland was then invited to lead the Brazilian Navy, resulting in the country’s de facto independence from Portugal. No this is not Romantic fantasy; this is the true story of Britain’s most underappreciated hero: Lord Admiral Cochrane.

Told in the thrilling manner that only Cochrane’s life deserves, historian and best-seller Peter Moore has produced a groundbreaking work, revealing in all its exceptional detail, the life and times of ‘El Cochrane’ – the hero, the romantic, the ‘dangerous man’ that made even Byron jealous.

Trade World: The Ties That Bound Our Past and Could Unravel Our Future by Ed Conway

WH Allen, 3 September 2026

Award winning author of Material World takes the reader through the fast and consuming world of global trade – the building blocks on which our civilisation rests. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms within the chip inside your smartphone – ‘the story of trade is the story of humanity.’

With an erudite style and using examples that will feel close to the bone, Conway highlights how the essence of trade and exchange is fast shifting to a level of control like we’ve never seen before. From the ocean polluting tankers to clandestine smugglers, this thorough, highly relevant, and daring work reveals how trade sustains us, destroys us and what we can do to protect ourselves in an extreme time of tariffs, wars, and globalisation.

Domesday: 1,000 miles on foot through the England of the Norman Conquest by Max Adams

Apollo, 3 September 2026

In 1085, having taken control of England just twenty years previously, William the Conqueror commissioned the most ambitious endeavours of its time: The Grand Survey.

What came of it was Domesday – an extraordinary document revealing the state of this newly conquered land: what his English subjects owned, and what he and his Norman lords were owed. But as Max Adams shows, the undertaking of Domesday brought to light far more than tax and ownership – it is a vital historical account that details the lives, communities, landscapes and issues that shaped Anglo-Saxon England.  

Who else better to guide us on this wandering trek than an archaeologist, carpenter, and best-selling author of The King in The North? Tracing each village and encounter on foot, and with contemporary chronicles at hand, Adams vividly reimagines what life was like in England, over a thousand years ago.

For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James by Darryl Jones

Oxford University Press, 10 September 2026

Cambridge intellect and ghost story supremo; foremost authority on Biblical apocrypha, stained glass and medieval manuscripts: Montague Rhodes James was a man that inhabited worlds, explored supernatural possibilities, and divulged notions that both fascinated and unnerved.

Yet beneath the brilliance and renown, there existed an enigmatic individual shielded both from himself and others. A man of apparent genius yet inner confusion, at odds with the speed of change and the violence of war, Darryl Jones’ deeply researched book illustrates an individual of immense prowess and silenced fragility – an impassioned mind shaped and constrained by the Victorian society he was subject to.

For historians and ghost-story enthusiasts alike; for scholars and those amongst us intrigued by the complexities of the human condition, For the Dead Remember is an achievement of biography that invites the reader into the curious, tender, and powerful inner world of M R James.

Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre

Viking, 10 September 2026

Get comfortable and settle in – Ben Macintrye’s new book will have you on the edge of your seat. With the backdrop of a world on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, one ‘intimate secret’ seems set to bring catastrophic chaos. With KGB information on the line, the fate of the Cold War lies in the hands of Ian McCredie, a young undercover MI6 officer who knows too much for his own good.

From The Times’ writer-at-large and best-selling author of Agent Zigzag and Rogue Heroes, this is a gripping narrative of courage, betrayal, and espionage – a book you will struggle to put down. Taking readers through shadowy back alleys, into clandestine intelligence offices, and drawing on never-before-seen archival material Macintyre discloses a world in turmoil, where no one’s motive is what it seems, and exposure means death. Who knew September reading could be so exciting!

King's Secretary: William Paget and the Last Years of the Reign of Henry VIII by Andrew Johnston

Yale University Press, 22 September 2026

From the reign that gave us everything, Andrew Johnson provides us with one further gem.

As Henry VIII’s era drew to a close, the Tudor legacy remained in the balance. The stage was set for turmoil: English nobles waiting in the wings, scheming for control; the French preparing to invade; and Henry’s potential heirs at the heart of it all. These consisted of two daughters of disgraced parentage, and a young son too inexperienced to rule.

Enter William Paget. Thomas Cromwell’s successor (he was also born into obscurity), Paget navigated the labyrinth of Tudor politics with skill, foresight and cunning, helping to secure the crown and establish himself as the most gifted politician of his generation. Historian Andrew Johnston skilfully brings Paget and his career into the fore – detailing with a story teller’s nous an exceptional individual that deserves to be celebrated far more than he is.   

Deep into the Sixties: Britain 1965–66 by David Kynaston

Bloomsbury, 24 September 2026

Named as the poet of post-war Britain, David Kynaston’s new book is an intimate and extensive dive into the heart of British life in the Sixties – a period today that is cherished for its great cultural richness.

Yet Kynaston details how this ‘swinging’ era was far more unsettled than what The Beatles and a free-thinking youth might suggest. Progress was slow. In many ways the Sixties that we think of, he explains, would take until the Seventies to get going. Covering one landmark year - from after Churchill's death in early 1965 to England's Wembley triumph in July 1966 - Kynaston uses a plethora of contemporary and historic sources to demystify and inform.

The latest installment in his acclaimed series, Tales of a New Jerusalem, and named one of Sunday Times Best Books of the twenty first century, Deep into the Sixties makes very real this increasingly faraway time, interweaving the hopes and pains of domestic life with the global news stories that shaped the years to come.

Peasants: Makers of the Modern World by Maryam Aslany

Bloomsbury, 24 September 2026

Once the human engine of every community in the world - feeding empires, families and forging modern states - to a people forced into the shadows by modern industry, Maryam Aslany’s passionate book demonstrates how today’s peasantry is on the point of collapse.

Yet it is these people – the two billion lives that provide over a third of the world’s food - that are in fact indispensable for our future, and whose fate is inseparable from our own. In an era of megafarms and machines, the dangerous assumption is that our needs are being catered for, somehow, somewhere; Peasants debunks the myth.

Deftly shifting registers, from deep history to first-hand encounters, and taking the reader on a journey from Indian sugar fields to the rice landscapes of Cambodia, the coca valleys of Peru to Ghana's cocoa belt, Aslany’s powerful debut is a statement of importance and intent. ‘We cannot afford to ignore their voices any longer.’