The World of the Phoenicians, by Sabatino Moscati (Phoenix, £14.99 in UK)

The Phoenicians were well known in Homer's time, and they were a major seafaring and trading power until Rome extinguished Carthage in the second century BC. They belonged among the great Semitic races of the Near and Middle East - Babylonia, Assyria, the Hittites, the Jews, all of whom have vanished except the last. Though their human sacrifices were cruel and their politics were bloody, they were a creative race who left interesting artefacts behind them and opened trading routes all over Europe and Africa. This readable book carries a good section of photographs.