About · Focal Point Publications
Publishing primary-source history since 1980.
We publish books drawn from letters, diaries, ministerial papers and intelligence files — not from summaries of summaries. Our readers want the documentary record. We put it into their hands.
- Founded
- 1980
- Titles in print
- 30+
- Countries shipped to
- 80
- Editorial desk
- London
Our mission
Give readers direct access to the documentary record.
Every book we publish starts in an archive, not in a university press office. We work from the sources — scan them, translate them, annotate them, and print them so the next generation of readers can reach their own conclusions.
Primary sources first
Ministerial papers, private diaries, intelligence files, contemporaneous press. If we cite it, we can point you at where it sits.
Craft-grade editions
Cloth-bound collector editions, restored photo plates on heavy stock, signed copies, individually-numbered runs. Books built to last.
Direct to readers
Forty years of publishing direct. No reseller between the historian and the reader. No margin skimmed off a research project.
Four decades
A history of publishing history.
1980
Focal Point Publications founded
A London-based imprint grows out of an irregular newsletter of five hundred subscribers.
1982
International Campaign for Real History
The imprint's editorial mission broadens to preserving primary-source history beyond the founder's own titles.
1996
Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich
A flagship biography draws on previously unreleased diary material from Moscow archives.
2001
Churchill's War, Vol. II
The second volume of what has become our multi-decade flagship series.
2020
Direct-to-reader online
Full modernisation of our shop, worldwide tracked shipping, and digital editions launched.
Today
Thirty-plus titles in print
Hardback, paperback, digital and audiobook editions, distributed from London to more than eighty countries.
"History is like a constantly changing tree — new branches always growing as new documents come to light."
— David Irving, Founder
What we publish
Books that cover the twentieth century from the inside.
Second World War
Campaign histories and political biographies of the figures who shaped the war: Hitler, Churchill, Goebbels, Göring, Rommel. Front-line archive-grounded work across two decades.
Post-war trials & settlement
Nuremberg and its consequences. Denazification. The shaping of post-war Germany, Eastern Europe and the intelligence order that followed.
Political biography
Lives of twentieth-century statesmen rebuilt from private papers and unpublished diaries. Churchill's War — first and second volumes — is the flagship series.
Archival editions
Translations and annotated editions of primary documents: diaries, memoranda, prison interviews, intelligence summaries. Often seeing their first English-language publication.
Our readers
Who reads Irving Books.
Historians & scholars
Academic researchers, postdocs and graduate students who want the primary material without the mediating interpretation.
Collectors
Private collectors and institutional libraries acquiring signed, slipcased and individually-numbered editions for long-term keeping.
Serious general readers
Readers outside academia who want source-grounded history, not narrative non-fiction — and are willing to read long, footnoted books to get it.
Where we are
One office, one editorial desk, one imprint.
Head office
81 Cambridge Gardens
London W10 6JE
United Kingdom
Editorial, press, and dispatch all from one London address. We ship to more than eighty countries.
Hours
Mon–Fri · 09:00 GMT
A family operation.
Focal Point Publications is a small team. Editorial, production, packing and dispatch all happen in the same London office. When you order a book, there's no algorithmic warehouse between your shelf and ours — just a staff member wrapping it, writing the customs form, and sending it off.
That means the speed of a global retailer isn't always possible. What we can promise is care: a book packed to survive customs queues in Singapore, an inscription note caught before the parcel is sealed, a reply to your question from the same person who took the order.
Work with us.
Authors, booksellers, academic partners, affiliates, collectors. Wherever you fit, we'd like to hear from you.
Programmes
How to work with Irving Books.
Publish with us
Submit a manuscript to our editorial team.
Sell on Irving Books
List your titles alongside ours.
Affiliate programme
Earn 15% on every book you refer.
Buyback programme
Sell your rare first editions to us.
Student discount
30% off for enrolled students.
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