For obvious reasons, this year has witnessed a minor avalanche of books about the First World War.

The one that continues to haunt me is The Great War: The People's Story by Isobel Charman (Random House, £20). I defy anyone not to be profoundly moved by the tales of ordinary folk, from across the social spectrum, living, dying, dreaming and crying through this horrendous period.

Referendum events in Scotland also inspired a large number of books with a historical hook. The goal of Linda Colley's pithy Acts Of Union And Disunion (Profile, £8.99) was to explore some of the themes and ideas that have held the United Kingdom together over the past few centuries. Colley makes it clear that most of the old shibolleths are past their sell-by-date and, while a conspicuous agenda is in evidence, her book is well worth a post-referendum read.

In a year of poignant anniversaries and complex contemporary debates, a little escapism was very welcome. You can't get much more distant than Australia, so I greatly enjoyed The Great Race by David Hill (Little, Brown, £25). It tells the chaotic story of an Englishman and a Frenchman who competed in the arduous task of charting Australia's coastline during the early 19th century. The detail is exquisite.

It has also been an excellent year for Napoleon. Michael Broers gave us Napoleon: Soldier Of Destiny (Faber and Faber, £30). With the possible exception of Geoffrey Parker's astonishing study of Philip II of Spain (Imprudent King, Yale University Press, £25), this would be my historical biography of the year. It draws on a staggering range of archival sources and reminds us that Napoleon was, by turns, the most brilliant and most baffling figure of his age. High praise, too, for Jenny Uglow - In These Times: Living In Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 (Faber and Faber, £17) was splendid.

The rosette for ambition should go to Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker, £25). It contains many sweeping statements but this can't really be avoided in a book that attempts to trace how our species emerged and managed to take over the world. I disagreed with many of the author's ideas but I never lost respect for his rigour and passion.

Four final favourites. If you thought you knew everything you needed to know about Robert Bruce, think again. Michael Penman's intricate study (Robert The Bruce: King Of The Scots, Yale University Press, £17) brings front-line scholarship to a broader readership and will transform your understanding of this complex historical figure. I also enjoyed God's Traitors: Terror And Faith In Elizabethan England by Jessie Childs (The Bodley Head, £17). There have been many books on the turbulent lives of Catholics in post-Reformation England, but Childs's nuanced account of the the Vauxes of Harrowden Hall in Northamptonshire convinced me there is still new ground to explore or, at least, revisit with fresh eyes.

I must also mention Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth, by Lee Jackson (Yale University Press, £20). The subject matter is grubby but the prose is clean and the book provides a wonderfully intimate portrait of how 19th-century Londoners attempted to dodge the horse dung, wipe off the soot and wash their clothes in difficult circumstances.

Another book that finds the hermeneutic jewels in everyday life is St Petersburg: Shadows Of The Past by Catriona Kelly (Yale University Press, £25). It explores the role of memory in shaping cultural identity, wears its learning lightly, and should fill every historian with envy.