My interest into anything historical, I attribute perhaps sixty years ago, to a set of books belonging to my grandfather; historical encyclopaedias, with green leather binding, written in an old-fashioned style (although that's how it seemed to me) and copies of watercolours protected by transparent paper. One of the paintings was of the murder of David Rizzio at Holyrood House with a pregnant Mary Queen of Scots and a murderous Lord Darnley in the frame was especially haunting.

Since then I have purchased countless books on various aspects of History for education purposes as well as for my own interest including fact-based textbooks, biographies, thematic studies, novels, journals, magazines etc. This list is composed of the miscellany of books which are of current interest and are on my bookshelves and not in storage!