Leading historians share their thoughts on what book or film you should delve into next

Our pick of the latest military history books

This lightweight General Service Mk V device could immobilise Hitler’s heavy tanks and was used during fighting in Northwest Europe

Johannes Vermeer brightened his native Delft with luminous pictures of women caught in intimate moments, but the serenity of his work, of which he produced remarkably little, is at odds with a life mired in debt, as Carla Passino discovers

Glasgow, 1942. The Carl Rosa Opera Company was in town to perform Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Tickets had been snapped up by local people – including many who didn’t really know what an opera was. The

I’ve always had a spirit of adventure; an urge to discover what lies beyond the horizon. I was born in France, raised in Algeria, and as an adult I’ve worked all over the world. Wherever I was posted,