The Norman Conquest in 1066 was the last time England was successfully invaded, and was one of the most profound turning points in English history. This fascinating Very Short Introduction focuses on the differing ways the invasion was viewed by those who witnessed it, and how its legacy has been interpreted by generations since.

The history of northern Renaissance art, from the late 14th to the early 16th century, drawing on a rich range of sources to show how northern European art dominated the visual culture of Europe in this formative period

One of the greatest political novels in any language, Nostromo enacts the establishment of modern capitalism in a remote South American province locked between the Andes and the Pacific. This edition offers new insights into Conrad's masterpiece.

Everyone knows the story of the flood, the men God chose to survive and the animals that went in two by two. But what about the others that sailed on the Ark - the women and the children? This adventure story asks what it was really like when the heavens opened and the world drowned - and what might have happened in the days that followed.

This selection offers a cross-section from the 6,000 surviving sheets that constitute Leonardo's notebooks, including his thoughts on landscape, optics, anatomy, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Fully updated, this new edition includes some 70 line drawings and a Preface by Leonardo expert Martin Kemp.

What is 'nothing'? What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space - a void - exist? This Very Short Introduction explores the science and history of the elusive void: from Aristotle's theories to black holes and quantum particles, and why the latest discoveries about the vacuum tell us extraordinary things about the cosmos.