World Without End (Penguin Books)

Following Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age, World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire żeby Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authority World Without End tells the story of life in a conquered territory that stretched from Cuba to Peru, and of the final conquests of the greatest empire that the world had then seen since the fall of Rome 1,000 years before.

By the time of Philip II's death - and after his startling decision, made in his final years, not to invade China - the attentions of the colonists, clergymen, sailors, soldiers and officials of the Spanish Empire were no longer turned to its expansion: their focus, instead, became its management.

These were the decades in which modern history began. Hugh Thomas received the Calvo Serer, Boccacio, and Nonino prizes in Italy in 2009, and in 2008 was made a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France.His many books include his classic history of The Spanish Civil War (winner, the Somerset Maugham Award); The Suez Affair; Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom; An Unfinished History of the World; The Slave Trade; and the two previous volumes in this trilogy, Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age.