The Rest is History

A fun and easy read … the authors’ sense of humour, combined with what feels like bottomless knowledge of their subject, really does make history seem interesting, enjoyable and even fun … it’s quite different from other history books. Holland and Sandbrook’s approach to asking curious questions, and then answering them, takes the reader on an idiosyncratic ride through history … The Rest is History is most certainly a readable book. It’s educational without being didactic, and thought-provoking without being too taxing * Independent *This compilation of the historically odd and downright wacky is the book version of their popular podcast … Clever, light-hearted history from serious historians * Sydney Morning Herald *Reasonable people might well have been turned off revisionist history by Ridley Scott’s dull, flat, thin cinematic version of Napoleon’s life. An antidote lies close to hand, in the form of a book-length write-up of the popular podcast, The Rest is History * Interpreter *I recently gave my dad a copy of The Rest Is History, the printed spinoff to the podcast hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. The man absolutely wolfed it down. He’d never heard the podcast before, but the book’s tone – bitty, authoritative pop history – was like a cruise missile aimed directly at his brain stem – Stuart Heritage * Guardian *A book to gift every history buff * Readings *As a way to learn big chunks of history in a fast and entertaining way, this written version is arguably even more effective than its popular audio parent * Business Post *

Tom Holland is the author of a range of books on ancient and early medieval history. He has translated Herodotus and Suetonius, presented TV documentaries on subjects ranging from dinosaurs to the Islamic State, and been described by The Times as ‘a leading English cricketer’.

Dominic Sandbrook was educated at Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge, and was an academic at Sheffield before becoming a writer. He is best known for his histories of Britain since the 1950s, most recently Who Dares Wins, as well as a series of history books for younger readers, Adventures in Time. He has presented many documentaries on BBC Two and Radio 4, and is a columnist for The Times and book critic for the Sunday Times.