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Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Southern & Mediterranean Europe

• Italy
• Spain
• Portugal
• Greece
• Balkans

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  The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

  Price: £5.99    Add to Basket

  Presented in the 16th century as a gift from Macchiavelli to 'His Magnificence' Lorenzo de Medici, this treatise on power and leadership has become a perennial classic of philosophy. Peter Constantine's fresh translation is erudite, forthright and readable in the extreme.

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  Rome by Robert Hughes

  Price: £10.99    Add to Basket

  Hughes traces the city’s history from its mythic foundation with Romulus and Remus to Fascism, Fellini and beyond. Hughes’ Rome is an effervescent mass of contradictions and a monument to glory and error.

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  City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire by Roger Crowley

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  A confident, colourful tapestry of Venetian history from Ascension Day 1000 to 1500. Crowley's grasp of the complex forces - political, ideological and mercantile - driving this exploration is accompanied by a knack for anecdote and irresistable character sketches.

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  Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

  Price: £7.99    Add to Basket

  Originally published in 1938, this is Orwell's classic account of his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. In what is one of his finest books he describes the calamity and humanity of a chaotic war.

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  Persian Fire by Tom Holland

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A bloody, popular and gripping history of the rise and fall of the Persian Empire.

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  Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

  Price: £25.00    Add to Basket

  Drawing on years of interviews and conversations with Leigh Fermor and his closest friends, this beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts - widely considered to be the greatest travel writer of our time.

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  Cruel Crossing by Edward Stourton

  Price: £20.00    Add to Basket

  In Cruel Crossing Stourton reveals the remarkable personal stories of endurance, betrayal and incredible bravery of those who struggled along the escape routes through the Pyrenees from France to Spain during the Second World War. Drawing on interviews with the few remaining survivors and the families of those who were there, Stourton's vivid history of this little-known aspect of WWII is shocking, dramatic and intensely moving. One of the best books on the war, and the personal tragedies suffered, to come along for some time.

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  Spain: A History by Raymond Carr (Ed.)

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  Esteemed scholar Carr here edits a broad and sinuous collection of essays addressing the prevalent social and intellectual trends of Spanish history. In emphasising the remarkable artistic and literary achievements of its people this book does much to enhance our understanding of Spain's rich cultural heritage.

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  Malta A Traveller's Anthology by Deborah Manley (ed.)

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  A superb companion for the serious visitor which explains the historical significance of this strategic island, its religious heritage and literary lineage.

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  The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean by David Abulafia

  Price: £14.99    Add to Basket

  An imaginative, expansive and vivid tribute to an extraordinary locus of world civilisation. Abulafia takes on the Herculean task of charting Mediterranean history from 3500 BC to the present day, celebrating its linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity without ever losing sight of identifiable individuals.

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  Venice by Peter Ackroyd

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  A surprisingly fresh social and cultural history of Venice which succeeds because of Ackroyd's biographical style, personal insights and his way of representing the city's peculiarly illusory and contradictory nature.

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  The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander

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  Caroline Alexander's fascinating book which explores the enduring power of the Iliad, what it says about the horror of war and its particular relevance to modern warfare.

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  Between Salt Water & Holy Water: a History of Southern Italy by Tommaso Astarita

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  Native Neopolitan turned US-based history professor Astarita here crafts a masterful account of this complex region. Covering art, politics and landscape in prose that is lucid, evocative and richly detailed, it is a book both scholarly and instantly accessible to all.

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  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

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  Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome at the zenith of its power and expansion. His enduring, aphoristic meditations on life and death remain to this day a popular and potent source of philosophical perspective and affirming wisdom.

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  The Italians by Luigi Barzini

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  A prominent Italian journalist of 1950s and '60s, Barzini here paints a wittily anecdotal and critically insightful portrait of his compatriots, marshalling the broad sweep of history with great skill. Published in 1964 it of course lacks commentary on recent decades, but his universal truths of Italian morals and manners still resonate today.

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  Pompeii by Mary Beard

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  A lively history book which genuinely brings to life the ancient city of Pompeii. Readable yet academic.

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  The Parthenon by Mary Beard

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  The first instalment in Profile's fantastic series on the world's great monuments, Beard's curious history of the Athenian landmark is fascinating, erudite and readable in the extreme.

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  Crete: The Battle and the Resistance by Anthony Beevor

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  A lively yet erudite history of the British Campaign in Crete during the Second World War.

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  The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  Published in 2007 but written before the author made his name with such classics as 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin', Beevor's account of the Spanish conflict is erudite and compelling, if at times a touch overwhelming in its scholarly depth. Best tackled by those wanting something more complex than Orwell.

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  A Tuscan Childhood by Kinta Beevor

  Price: £10.99    Add to Basket

  A charming memoir of Kinta Beevor's bohemian, aristocratic childhood growing up in a castle in Tuscany during the first half of the 20th century.

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  The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

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  Beginning as an investigation into the fire that destroyed the historic Fenice theatre in 1996, Berendt's book meanders broadly through the murky world of the city, taking in all manner of weird and wonderful characters. Though perhaps lacking the cohesive potency of 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' - for which the author was shortlisted for the Pulitzer - this is nonetheless a deeply interesting and enjoyable account of contemporary Venice.

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  A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena de Blasi

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  A charming, easily-digested Tuscan food memoir featuring plenty of highly pleasing anecdotes and recipes too.

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  A Traveller's History of Cyprus by Tim Boatswain

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  Boatswain's clear and well-structured book is packed with arresting detail and readable in the extreme. Cyprus's location has long endowed it with strategic importance far beyond its size, and it has suffered a complex history as a result. Essential for any visitor, and probably for readers with an interest in European geopolitics too.

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  A Time in Rome by Elizabeth Bowen

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  Bowen's magnificent evocation of the city illuminates its history and architecture whilst portraying beautifully the impressions it made upon her. Throughout she employs the considerable skills of observation and description that made her such a singular novelist.

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  Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy by Sarah Bradford

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  A rich and engaging portrait of Renaissance life, dense with sumptuous detail. In setting Borgia's controversial story firmly in its historical context, Bradford occasionally allows her subject to become lost in the wider frame. That said, the complexity of her research cannot be faulted, and her handling of the material is admirable.