London’s Triumph

by Stephen Alford 336pp, Allen Lane, £20, ebook £9.99

In 1553, some rich London merchants tried to beat their Portuguese rivals to China by nipping across the Arctic Sea. The flagship was trapped in ice; all its crew froze to death. But the rest went overland to Moscow, where Ivan the Terrible gave them not just vodka but exclusive trading rights in his domains. As Alford vividly describes, ventures like theirs turned London – after just three generations – into something akin to a global hub. Noel Malcolm