🏛️ Reading list
From discovery, sugar and slavery to the British merchants and the emperor who died in exile here — the books that explain the island.
An extensively researched account of nearly two centuries of British commercial and social influence on Madeira, tracing how resident merchant families informally “colonised” the island as a key staging post in transatlantic trade.
A classic scholarly study of the Portuguese Atlantic islands’ role in 17th-century commerce and maritime navigation — a foundational academic reference for Madeira and wider Macaronesia.
Nine essays re-evaluating the early Atlantic “sugar revolution”, including a chapter on the sugar economy of Madeira and the Canaries, showing how Madeira pioneered the plantation-and-slavery model later exported to the Americas.
Marcus Binney’s bicentenary history of the Blandy family, the English merchant dynasty that became Madeira’s leading wine shippers (and owners of Reid’s Palace) while expanding into banking, shipping and more. Richly illustrated.
A joint biography of the last Habsburg emperor, Charles (Karl) I, and Empress Zita — covering his final exile and death from pneumonia at Quinta do Monte in Madeira in 1922 and his burial at the church of Nossa Senhora do Monte.
A detailed treatment of Madeira’s celebrated embroidery tradition — its history, fibres and techniques — with step-by-step stitch instructions, diagrams, photographs and projects.
An accessible, illustrated overview of Madeira’s history — from its 15th-century discovery and settlement through the sugar and wine economies to the modern era — produced with the Madeira Story Centre in Funchal.