Annual Booklist 2025 : Matthew Taylor
Matthew Taylor is a Civil Servant who has worked for the British House of Lords for over a decade. A history enthusiast with particular focus on little-known stories that confound common historical narratives; his time at the heart of British politics has taught him the value of history in allowing us to better know ourselves today, and work toward a greater future. He is the author of Black Redcoats: The Corps of Colonial Marines, 1814-1816, and recently spoke about his research for that book as part of the Society’s online talks programme.
George Macdonald Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here : A Recollection of the War in Burma (1993)
The author of the famed "Flashman" series of historical novels delivers not only an excellent account of serving in Burma, with numerous wonderful asides about those he served with, but this book also stands out to me as a paean to the last great war of the Anglo-Indian Army's two centuries of existence, and the incredible intermingling of two distant cultures that took place between fighting men.
Harry Golding (editor), The Wonder Book of Soldiers (Revised Seventh Edition, 1920)
A children's book, and an exciting historical artifact for the British Army historian. This book is something akin to a fish whose flippers are just developing into legs, capturing a moment in time and evolution of the British Army with remarkably useful clarity. The Wonder Book's various articles by various authors contains examples of a rip-roaring Victorian gung-ho militarism ("that wonderland of the fighting soldier's dreams, THE FRONT") while reflecting on the new reality of modern war in an at times bizarrely child-friendly way ("apart from the many ghastly actualities of warfare in which all sorts of horrible chemicals, poison gas, and high explosives are in constant use, the discomforts are often very real."). The book's caught-in-amber sensation carries all the way to the last page, with a picture of a Handley Page Type O bomber being drawn by a tractor across an airfield, and the final words "Where the Sahib leads the Sepoy follows".
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
A thought experiment alternate history novel which was, for a younger me, a kind of "how to think like a historian" job placement. This novel sets out roughly 700 years of human history starting in about 1300 where, unlike in our reality, the Black Death is incredibly more deadly and European civilisation collapses. The history of the world is subsequently defined by China, Islam, and (eventually) the Americas. With social, military and economic history concepts sloshing together with an overarching tale of reincarnating souls in different times and places, it's a magical read that'll stretch your historical imagination. If you ever meet me in person, ask me about the book's most significant character!
Dale Cox, The Fort at Prospect Bluff: The British Post on the Apalachicola & the Battle of Negro Fort (2020)
If you want a "companion piece" to my own book, this is it. Dale's meticulously researched story of the British expeditionary force sent into north Florida in 1814 led by the Colonel "Fighting" Nicolls of the Royal Marines and their interactions with escapees from US and Spanish slavery, and the Creek Native American Nation (to whose descendent group, the Yuchi of the Muscogee Creek, Dale belongs) is a beautifully granular read unveiling remarkable stories.
Harry Turtledove, The Guns of the South (1992)
Another alternate history, for which I make no apologies. What would happen if time-travelling Afrikaan neo-Nazis armed Robert E Lee's Army of Northern Virginia with AK-47s? And that's not even a spoiler, as that all happens in the first chapter. What follows is an amazing exploration of a question that vexes all historians - if a historical figure could somehow have known what their legacy would be, would they change course?
A special mention for "If Lee Had NOT Won the Battle of Gettysburg" by Winston S Churchill, in JC Squire (editor), If It Had Happened Otherwise (1931). I'm a great fan of alternate history stories. Though sometimes denigrated as a counterfactual waste of time, I challenge anyone to think that after reading this 1931 offering by Churchill. A different end to the US Civil War leads to the political union of the British Empire, United States of America, and Confederate States of America, into an unassailably powerful force for world-wide peace and plenty. Fantastical yes, but in August 1941 as he put together the Atlantic Charter with Roosevelt, I have no doubt that Churchill was tickled that he was making real his counterfactual fantasy of a decade past. This aspect of his career is one of those things I wish more Churchill history folk would pay attention to, along with his love of science fiction! He once said he knew every H.G. Wells story by heart ... and if you ever read "the land ironclads" (1903) and then realise Churchill set up the "landships committee" in 1915 it's so obvious! There is also a genuinely amazing article where he imagines aerial drone warfare - "a ceaseless parade of death over the battlefield". An exploration of this facet of his life would make an excellent book project for someone.