Simon Winchester Books in Order
Simon Winchester has written 36 books, published between 1975 and 2025. The first book is In Holy Terror (1975) and the newest is The Breath of the Gods (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 36
- Published
- 1975–2025
- Pages on record
- 8,912 in 27 of 36 books
- Reading time
- 149–223 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 8,912 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 27 of 36 titles with a page count on record.
Simon Winchester is a British-American author and journalist whose 36 catalogued books are largely narrative nonfiction: history, travel writing and biography. Winchester reported for The Guardian, covering Bloody Sunday and the Watergate scandal, and has contributed to magazines including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian and National Geographic. The catalogue runs from In Holy Terror (1975) through Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (1985) and Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles (1988) to The Breath of the Gods (2025). One novel sits among the nonfiction.
How many Simon Winchester books are there?
Simon Winchester has 36 books, released between 1975 and 2025.
Simon Winchester Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 36 Simon Winchester books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1In Holy Terror1975 · 256 pages · confirmed 1/419752561/4
- 2American Heartbeat1976 · 202 pages · confirmed 1/419762021/4
- 3Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain1981 · 281 pages · confirmed 1/419812811/4
- 4Prison Diary, Argentina1984 · 219 pages · confirmed 1/419842191/4
- 5Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire1985 · confirmed 1/41985–1/4
- 6The Sun Never Sets: travels to the Remaining Outposts of the British Empire1985 · 316 pages · confirmed 1/419853161/4
- 7Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles1988 · confirmed 1/41988–1/4
- 8The Rise and Fall of Travel1989 · 448 pages · confirmed 1/419894481/4
- 9Pacific Nightmare : How Japan Starts World War III1991 · 324 pages · confirmed 1/419913241/4
- 10Pacific Rising: The Emergence of a New World Culture1991 · 496 pages · confirmed 1/419914961/4
- 11Hong Kong: Here Be Dragons1992 · 240 pages · confirmed 1/419922401/4
- 12The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time1996 · 448 pages · confirmed 1/419964481/4
- 13The Surgeon of Crowthorne1998 · 228 pages · confirmed 1/419982281/4
- 14The Professor and the Madman1998 · 288 pages · confirmed 1/419982881/4
- 15The Fracture Zone: My Return to the Balkans1999 · 272 pages · confirmed 1/419992721/4
- 16The Map That Changed the World2001 · 368 pages · confirmed 1/420013681/4
- 17The Meaning Of Everything2003 · 288 pages · confirmed 1/420032881/4
- 18Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 18832003 · 416 pages · confirmed 1/420034161/4
- 19Simon Winchester's Calcutta2004 · 302 pages · confirmed 1/420043021/4
- 20A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 19062005 · 462 pages · confirmed 1/420054621/4
- 21The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom2008 · 352 pages · confirmed 1/420083521/4
- 22Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China2008 · 256 pages · confirmed 1/420082561/4
- 23The Best American Travel Writing 20092009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
- 24Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories2009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
- 25The Alice Behind Wonderland2011 · confirmed 1/42011–1/4
- 26Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection2012 · 255 pages · confirmed 1/420122551/4
- 27The Man With The Electrified Brain: Story of a Man with an Electrified Brain2013 · confirmed 1/42013–1/4
- 28The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible2013 · 512 pages · confirmed 1/420135121/4
- 29When the Earth Shakes: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis2015 · 71 pages · confirmed 1/42015711/4
- 30Pacific2015 · 693 pages · confirmed 1/420156931/4
- 31When the Sky Breaks: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and the Worst Weather in the World2017 · 87 pages · confirmed 1/42017871/4
- 32Exactly / The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World2018 · 416 pages · confirmed 1/420184161/4
- 33The End of the River2020 · confirmed 1/42020–1/4
- 34Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World2021 · 416 pages · confirmed 1/420214161/4
- 35Knowing What We Know2023 · confirmed 1/42023–1/4
- 36The Breath of the Gods2025 · confirmed 1/42025–1/4
Simon Winchester books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Standalone books
36 books36 Simon Winchester titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Simon Winchester books in order?
No. No source lists any of the 36 Simon Winchester books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.
Where to start with Simon Winchester
Start with In Holy Terror (1975), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Simon Winchester book?
The Breath of the Gods (2025) is the newest Simon Winchester book released so far.
Is there a new Simon Winchester book coming?
No next Simon Winchester book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Simon Winchester at a glance
- Still publishing
- Simon Winchester published a book as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Simon Winchester books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 8,912 pages across the 27 of 36 books with a recorded length, a median of 302 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Simon Winchester books, 9 of 36, were published in the 2000s.
What the Simon Winchester books are about
29 of the 36 Simon Winchester books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: history is tagged on 17 of 29. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.