New History Books for October 2025

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

Graveyards by Roger Luckhurst

Thames & Hudson, 2 October 2025

With Halloween on the horizon, Graveyards is just the guide you need to explore the land of the unliving. Here, expert in Gothic culture, author Roger Luckhurst presents his latest research into the meaning and portrayal of death throughout history. 

From cenotaphs to tombs, the Pyramids of Giza to the catacombs,Luckhurst investigates the varied and contested ways in which we inter the deceased. But in our overcrowded world do we now have a new challenge? Where do we put the dead when the graveyards are full?

With illustrations throughout, blending history, art, literature and popular culture, Graveyards unlocks a question that has engaged almost every culture in history: death, burial and how we are remembered.

The Book of Revelations by Juliet Nicolson

Chatto & Windus, 2 October 2025

We all have secrets – those fundamental moments kept hidden from view. But which survive and which are too terrifying to tell? How has secrecy changed over time and what does that say about us? For those interested in scandals and tales unshared, this book is your autumn indulgence.

Beginning in the wake of the Second World War and tracing three generations of women from the 1950s to the present day, Juliet Nicolson weaves memoir, social history and anecdote together in The Book of Revelations.

Well known as the author of A House Full of Daughters and granddaughter of diarist, poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Nicolson takes the reader into her confidence in this intimate, time-travelling journey.

The Revolutionists by Jason Burke

Bodley Head, 2 October 2025 

Set against the backdrop of The Cold War, teeming with revelations about events such as the Munich Olympic Massacre, the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Islamic extremism, The Revolutionists is a decade-spanning narrative and addictive as a thriller.

For an investigation into the radical extremism that brought the West to its knees, it would be hard to find a more suited author. Jason Burke is the Guardian’s International Security Correspondent and a foremost writer on terroism.

Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, The Revolutionists examines recently declassified government files and includes original interviews with hijackers, spies, witnesses and victims. Poignant as ever, Burke shows how challenging it is to make sense of today without knowing the radical, tumultuous times that brought us here.

Jungle Commandos: The Battle for Arakan, Burma 1945 by Lucy Betteridge-Dyson

Osprey, 9 October 2025

Five thousand miles from home, set deep in the heart of one of the most hostile environments in the world, a group of soldiers and allies – British, West African and Indian units – are faced with the impossible task of fighting the ruthless, ‘unbeatable’, 28th Japanese Army. This book is the untold story of the only Commando Brigade to be sent to the Far East in the Second World War.

Framed within the greater Burma Campaign and written by the daughter of a Commando veteran, Jungle Commandos illuminates previously unseen primary sources, personal accounts, and haunting details. Debut author Lucy Betteridge-Dyson has forged a vivid, scholarly tale of this unsung campaign that did much to decide the future of the war.

Wolfpack by Roger Moorhouse

William Collins, 9 October 2025

The Nazi U-Boats of World War Two were the ghostly force that outsailed Britain and her allies at almost every turn. Claiming a bitter harvest of 3,000 ships – nearly 70% of all Allied vessels – it should come as no surprise that they were the only enemy that ‘really frightened’ Churchill.

For the German U-Boatmen, themselves, the horrors of life onboard these vessels was unimaginable.

Putting aside the overtold ‘Allied Version of History,’ Roger Moorhouse’s landmark account of the Battle of the Atlantic seeks to restore the emotional balance.

From the optimism of embarkation, to the seabed as a grave, Wolfpack shares the tragedies of war through the recollections and words of the soldiers themselves.

The Book of Kells: Unlocking the Enigma by Victoria Whitworth

Apollo, 9 October 2025

‘The Book of Kells’ is one of the most notorious, unsolved manuscripts in history. Distinct from all copies of the gospels from the early Middle Ages, it is a book that continues to both absorb and perplex.

Known for the strange appearance of the script, the interplay of text and ornament, and the erratic forms of its Latin, for centuries it has bewildered scholars and readers alike. What was its purpose? Is there a method in the madness? Why was it unfinished and how did it begin?

Novelist, academic and expert in the Early Middle Ages, Victoria Whitworth dissects this inscrutable topic, shedding light on ancient secrets while providing new insights into what this manuscript means to us today.

Mavericks by Nick Higham

Bloomsbury, 9 October. 2025

Set in a forgotten corner of World War One, Mavericks is the rogue tale of oil, Empire, espionage and vanity.

With peace finally in sight, British minds turn towards the Caspian Sea. Sensing danger and opportunity, six officials plot a daring campaign to block the advancing Turks, hold back the Bolsheviks, prevent a jihad overwhelming India, and secure the vital supply of oil from Baku.

Eccentric, mad and full of risk – this is a classic tale of British overseas meddling.

Meticulous in its research, Mavericks elucidates the varmint characters behind the legends. An inventor, a Scottish aristocrat, a spy and others, ex-BBC journalist Nick Higham presents lives and times lived both with danger and style.

A rakish adventure for autumn.

1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Allen Lane, 14 October 2025

From bestselling author and financial columnist for the New York Times comes a consuming narrative that retells the most infamous stock market crash in history.

Greed, egoism and delusion, Andrew Ross Sorkin conjures the blind emotions and mad euphoria that fuelled the financial collapse that reshaped a generation.

With the Great Depression as a backdrop, and with the battle between Washington and Wall Street unleashed, Sorkin documents another story: the uncontrolled characters who benefited, the dreamers who were to blame, and the absurdity of the system they were all deluded by.

Electrifyingly told yet all too human in nature, Sorkin’s eerily relevant account immediately reminds us how fragile progress is.

A Guide to Regency Dress by Hilary Davidson

Yale University Press, 14 October 2025

For lovers of fashion, period dress and all elements of the British Regency wardrobe, this is a specialised work that informs with the flair of any good seamstress.

Part dictionary, part glossary, and with new research on hair, beauty, jewellery, textiles and all the trimmings of the time, Dr Hilary Davidson’s guide on Regency fashion is a masterclass of scholarship and detail.

Davidson is an associate professor and chair of MA Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Having completed twenty years of study on this topic, Davidson has the insight to steer the reader through the fashion of a definitive era – one of romance, revolution and industry.

Ruthless by Edmond Smith

Yale University Press, 28 October 2025

Today, the benefits of the Industrial Revolution are seen and felt everywhere. But the forces that drove that period of history forward remain shadowy and controversial.

With real style, historian Edmond Smith marches into the smog. What was gained? Who was exploited, and what was the human cost of greed that formed the basis of the world’s first industrial nation. This is a must read for anyone interested in the birth of the modern economy.

Smith's view is panoramic. Ruthless contains both domestic and international stories, with the action moving from London coffee houses to Manchester’s factories, and from there to plantations overseas.

This entertaining, well-researched narrative, is filled with insight and timely perspective.

Middleland by Rory Stewart

Jonathan Cape, 30 October 2025

Rooted in land, history and in nature, Rory Stewart’s new book is a very human narrative. It chronicles the people and places that he met during a decade spent in north Cumbria, a place he calls 'Middleland'.

A bestselling author and co-host of The Rest Is Politics podcast, Stewart is well known for his long meditative walks across distinct landscapes. Here he finds his attention being pulled in different directions. There's rural and the urban, the need to preserve yet to grow, the tension between the local and the national.

While emblematic of many areas in the UK and further afield, Middleland digs further beneath the surface. Offering a vision for the political future, Stewart salutes the rich history of Cumbria as well as the characters who continue to shape it.

This month's Previews were by Louis D. Hall.