Amanda Foreman: A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

British subjects volunteered by the thousands to pick sides and take up arms in the American Civil War — some took up arms for the Union, and others for the Confederacy. Though missing from many portrayals of the war, the British played an important role in this key moment in American history.

Allen Lane: Amanda Foreman is the author of the international bestseller Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1999) which has been translated into thirteen languages and won the Whitbread Prize for Biography. The book inspired a documentary, a radio play starring Dame Judi Dench, and a film, The Duchess, released in 2008, starring Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes. She is currently a research fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. She is married with five children.