Biography Books

Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD''So very important'' NIGELLA LAWSON''Brilliantly alive'' SUNDAY TIMES''A truly wonderful book. Read it'' HENRY MARSH''Shows us the very best of human nature'' ADAM KAY''Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness'' GUARDIANAs a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day, she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable. Rachel''s training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love. And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in lifeTrade ReviewThis is a wonderful book. Rachel takes the worst life can throw at us and shows us the beauty in itWhat a remarkable book this is; tender, funny, brave, heartfelt, radiant with love and life. It sings with joy and kindnessA truly wonderful book. Read itA truly beautiful book about death and life and the price of love. Told by a doctor, with compassion and wisdom. I cried, but they were warm, comforting tears. It made me think about stuff I fear in a new and better wayMoving, thought-provoking and so very important. I'm immeasurably grateful to have read it, and it will stay with me. In death, we learn about lifeA touching and profound meditation on what it means to be human . . . it is a remarkable book * Guardian *Dear Life names the tension between love and risk that gives life its sweetness. It takes readers to the edge of life in supportive, wise companyHeart-wrenchingly tender * Observer *She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty * Sunday Times *Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness * Guardian *A magnificent, tender book * Independent *Moving . . . an honest account from the front line of death * The Times *An enthralling and deeply affecting book . . . It is [the] blend of the personal and professional that makes Dear Life so special * Express *Honest, clear-sighted and immensely wise, Clarke's book is laced with loss, yet raises a jubilant toast to life * Literary Review *A heartbreaking, exhilarating read * Guardian *Arguably the most remarkable book of the year * The i *An NHS doctor interweaves heartwarming stories of palliative care for patients in a hospice with memories of her beloved GP father * Guardian *Rachel Clarke weaves together an account of her training as a doctor who came to specialise in palliative care, the stories of her patients, and her father's death in Dear Life. I read it while coming to terms with the death of a family friend, and found it full of honesty and tender wisdom about life and the process of dying. It managed the brilliant and paradoxical feat of helping you love life a little more and fear death a little less -- Matt Haig * Guardian *This astonishing book by Dr Clarke will make you re-evaluate your own life and priorities. This is a deeply moving read * Woman & Home *Compassionate, heartfelt and deeply life-affirming * Mirror *

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times Bestseller “I was born and broken in Birkenhead, abused from infancy by a network of every kind of pervert from ‘thinks it’s love’ to ‘show it hurts’. I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed, ignored and orphaned. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim – that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix – a work in progress. This is my story…”Trade Review"Beaten, left for dead and raped from the age of four, but now a national campaigner - Shy Keenan, we salute you." * Eve magazine *"I found Broken very painful (in fact, I remain haunted by its contents). Shy is trying hard to make the world a safer place for my children." * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTHE WORLDWIDE #1 BESTSELLER BEHIND AMAZON PRIME''S BOSCH AND NETFLIX''S THE LINCOLN LAWYERSOME CRIMES YOU CAN''T FORGET.OTHERS YOU CAN''T FORGIVE.Detective Renée Ballard is given the chance to revive the LAPD''s cold case unit and find justice for the families of the forgotten. The only catch is she must first unravel an unsolved murder, or lose this opportunity of a lifetime...Harry Bosch is top of the list of investigators Ballard wants to recruit. The ex-detective is a living legend - but for how long?Because Bosch has his own agenda: a crime that has haunted him for years - the murder of a whole family, buried out in the desert - which he vowed to close.With the killer still out there and evidence elusive, Bosch is on a collision course with a choice he hoped never to make...''Cements Connelly''s reputation as the master of modern crime fiction'' EXPRESS

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Book SynopsisIn the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunström, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless skerry in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, and for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the graphic artist, Tuulikki Pietilä, retreated there to live, paint and write, energised by the solitude and shifting seascapes. Notes from an Island, published in English for the first time, is both a chronicle of this period and a homage to the mature love that Tove and 'Tooti' shared for their island and for each other. Tove's spare prose, and Tuulikki's subtle washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty. '... Tooti wandered aimlessly around the island and stood stock still for long periods. I thought I knew what she was doing. She was working again. Copperplate etchings and wash drawings. Mostly the lagoon, the lagoon as a consummate mirror for clouds and birds, the lagoon in a storm, in fog. And the granite, first and foremost, the granite, the cliff, the rocks. It's all peace and quiet now.'Trade ReviewIt's hard to describe the astonishing achievement of Tove Jansson's artistry -- Ali SmithThe Summer Book's limpid style belies a deep psychological subtlety. It's about how people can live close together for months with tact and grace, and about how rich and rewarding even a small world can be. -- Melissa Harrison * Guardian *Both a memoir and a love letter to all things wild and weathered * New Statesman *These wry and winsome autobiographical sketches demonstrate the couple's virtuosity in the art of living...as evocative as a long-lost coastline glimpsed through mist. -- Nancy Campbell * TLS *

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Book Synopsis**SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** **RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK** **WATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH**''An astonishing feat''Christina Patterson, Sunday Times''An inspiring and moving sideways look at history''Eithne Farry, Sunday Express An eloquent blend of history and memoir, Threads of Life is an evocative and moving book about the need we all have to tell our story.From political propaganda in medieval France to secret treason in Tudor England, from the mothers of the desaparecidos in Argentina to First World War soldiers with PTSD, from a POW camp in Singapore to a family attic in Scotland, Threads of Life is a global chronicle of identity, protest, memory and politics. Banner-maker, community textile artist and textile curator Clare Hunter chronicles the stories of the men and women, over centuries and across continents, who have used the language of sewing to make their voiTrade ReviewIt's an astonishing feat, this patchwork quilt of history, culture and politics, which takes us from Saxon England to colonised African tribes, Palestinian villages, rural China and the cramped homes of American slaves . . . Her highly impressive debut is a richly textured and moving record of a history that has largely being lost. -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *Triumphant . . . an inspiration to anyone who has ever thought of picking up a needle and thread. -- Jane Shilling * Mail on Sunday *Astonishing . . . Hunter studied creative writing and cleverly uses personal narrative to create a persona one will instantly like . . . so well written. * TLS *Fascinating * Daily Telegraph *A blend of history and memoir, the book roves across centuries and continents to reveal how sewing has played a crucial part in our lives - from courts and battlefields to prisons and drawing rooms... Many of the stories in Threads of Life are heart-breaking...This beautiful, moving book makes you want to rush out and grab a needle. -- Liz Hoggard * Radio Times *Enchanting * S Magazine *Enthralling... By unpicking the seams of the clothes on our backs, Clare Hunter has brought to light elements of history that have languished in our collective attic for far too long. Threadsof Life is a terrific book. -- Susan Flockhart * The Herald *Enthralling...beautiful... An inspiring and moving sideways look at history. -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express *Threads of Life is a beautifully considered book that reminds us of how much sewing plays a crucial part in expressing the many facets of our lives. Clare Hunter has managed to mix the personal with the political with moving results. Reading it made me pick up my needle with a new perspective. -- Tracy ChevalierHunter's non-fiction debut reframes needlework as a powerful and political medium . . . Threads of Life is a compelling and beautifully written account of how marginalised peoples throughout history have used the language of sewing, embroidery and textiles to tell their neglected stories. -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *A rich and moving history of sewing and embroidery * Sunday Times (Culture) *A compelling account of how needlework has given a voice to the voiceless * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisA magisterial history of the greatest and most terrible event in history, from one of the finest historians of the Second World War. A book which shows the impact of war upon hundreds of millions of people around the world- soldiers, sailors and airmen; housewives, farm workers and children..Reflecting Max Hastings's thirty-five years of research on World War II, All Hell Let Loose describes the course of events, but focuses chiefly upon human experience, which varied immensely from campaign to campaign, continent to continent.The author emphasises the Russian front, where more than 90% of all German soldiers who perished met their fate. He argues that, while Hitler's army often fought its battles brilliantly well, the Nazis conducted their war effort with stunning incompetence'. He suggests that the Royal Navy and US Navy were their countries' outstanding fighting services, while the industrial contribution of the United States was much more important to allied victory than that of thTrade Review“This is the book he was born to write: a work of staggering scope and erudition, narrated with supreme fluency and insight, it is unquestionably the best single-volume history of the war ever written….. he writes with a wonderfully clear, unsentimental eye……and has a terrific grasp of the grand sweep and military strategy……But what makes his book a compelling read are the human stories……at the end of this gruesome, chilling but quite magnificent book, you never doubt that the war was worth fighting”. Sunday Times “No other general history of the war amalgamates so successfully the gut-wrenching personal details and the essential strategic arguments. Melding the worm’s eye view and the big picture is a difficult trick to pull of – but Hastings has triumphed”. The Times “majestic…it is impossible to emerge without a sense of the sheer scale of human tragedy…..To gather all these anecdotes together is a task in itself, but to assemble them in a way that makes sense is something entirely different….Hastings shapes all these stories, almost miraculously, into a single coherent narrative”. Daily Telegraph “In this massive work, the crowning volume of the 10 impressive books he has written about the Second World War, Sir Max Hastings spares us nothing in portraying the sheer bloody savagery of the worst war that the world has yet seen….this magnificent book….is hypnotically readable from the first page to the last”. Sunday Telegraph “A fast-moving, highly readable survey of the entire war…Hastings combines a mastery of the military events with invariably sound judgment and a sharp eye for unusual telling detail….this is military history at its most gripping. Of all Max Hastings’s valuable books, this is possibly his best – a veritable tour de force”. Evening Standard

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2017Born into nobility and married into the royal family, Catherine Howard was attended every waking hour secrets were impossible to keep. In this thrilling reappraisal of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Gareth Russell's history unfurls as if in real time to explain how the queen's career ended with one of the great scandals of Henry's reign. This is a grand tale of the Henrician court in its twilight, a glittering but pernicious sunset during which the king's unstable behaviour and his courtiers' labyrinthine deceptions proved fatal to many, not just to Catherine Howard.Trade ReviewA Daily Mail Book of the Week ‘A stunning reappraisal of the tragic life of Henry VIII’S fifth wife’ The Times ‘A timely and powerful re-examination of Henry's fifth queen … Gareth Russell has done some beautiful new research to indicate that Catherine was not as foolish as some historians have suggested, and that her death was managed and manipulated by her offended husband, purely for his own revenge … I love it when historians take the women who have been neglected by history seriously and study their lives rather than accepting stereotypes’ Philippa Gregory ‘“Young and Damned and Fair” is everything a historical biography should be’ Kathryn Warner, author of "Edward II: The Unconventional King" ‘Russell marries slick storytelling with a great wealth of learning about sixteenth-century personalities and politics. The result is a book that leads us deep into the nightmarish final years of Henry VIII's reign, wrenching open the intrigues of a poisonous court in a realm seething with discontent. At the heart of it all is the fragile, tragic figure of Catherine Howard, whose awful fate is almost unbearable to watch as it unfolds. This is authoritative Tudor history written with a novelist's lightness of touch. A terrific achievement’ Dan Jones ‘A magnificent account of the rise and fall of Henry VIII's tragic fifth queen – compelling, thought-provoking and above all real. In Russell's meticulously researched narrative Catherine Howard and her household are brought to life as never before. Hugely enjoyable’ Adrian Tinniswood ‘This fascinating and ultimately heartbreaking account of Henry VIII's doomed fifth wife brings to life the cruel, gossip-fuelled, back-stabbing world of the court in which Catherine Howard rose and fell. The uncommonly talented Gareth Russell has produced a masterly work of Tudor history that is engrossing, sympathetic, suspenseful, and illuminating’ Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws

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Book SynopsisChristopher de Bellaigue is the award-winning author of The Lion House: The Rise of Suleyman the Magnificent, which was chosen as a book of the year by The Times, Sunday Times, Spectator and New Yorker among others, as well as five previous books, including The Islamic Enlightenment, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2017. As a reporter he has covered war, politics, society and the environment in five continents for the Economist, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian and the BBC. He is the founder of the Lake District Book Festival in Cartmel, Cumbria, an Honorary Fellow of the University of St Andrews and in 2026 he will take up a Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. www.christopherdebellaigue.comTrade ReviewThere are books that enlarge the mind, there are books that enrich the soul, but rarely comes a book so beautifully-written and profound that it manages to do both -- ELIF SHAFAK, author of The Island of Missing TreesThe most daring history book of the year ... told in the present tense with all the dash and flair of a novel. The research is faultless: we are immersed ... it brilliantly conveys a sense of colour and momentum, placing the reader in the thick of the action. Unforgettable -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Times & Sunday Times Best Books of 2022 *This is history, but not as we know it. It is non-fiction posing as a novel, rich in incident and cinematic detail ... it's tremendous -- Justin Marozzi * Sunday Times *An urgent, immersive, present-tense gallop ... the book reads as a non-fiction novel ... cinematically vivid tableaux ... Each spangled scene ... rests on a solid foundation in the primary sources ... De Bellaigue enriches his storytelling with the colourful, meticulous dispatches of its traders, envoys and spies ... behind the bejewelled descriptive prose a thumping pulse of action tugs us through ... de Bellaigue's glittering, deft and often witty prose adds pleasure to each page * Financial Times *Luminous, erudite ... a gripping account that evokes an epic poem, saga or 'book of kings' ... It is as immersive as the blurb claims, conjuring the world of the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and south-eastern Europe in the early 16th century with the limpid clarity of the many gems that stud its pages ... Even more than the detail, it is the characters that intrigue and often inspire ... The book leaves the reader with Suleiman truly magnificent * Spectator *Mesmerising . . . steeped in the sensuous detail of banquet and ceremony, stratagem and conspiracy -- Colin ThubronA brilliantly written account of the Ottoman empire in all its opulence and brutality. Rich in colourful historical anecdotes, de Bellaigue brings 16th-century statecraft vividly alive, and offers a chilling insight into the ruthlessness and loneliness of one of the most powerful men of the age * Guardian *A vivid, cinematic account of the rise of Suleyman the Magnificent ... de Bellaigue follows with exhilarating clarity and suspense the era's broader battles across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and the individual trajectories - grand ambitions, rivalries, betrayals - of these outsiders in Suleyman's court, a place rife with intrigue and back-stabbing, rich with colourful characters -- Claire Messud * Harper's *Those lucky readers who come to Christopher de Bellaigue's book in proximity to reading Mantel can suddenly have a new panel thrown open to them like an unfolding altarpiece ... all written in the present tense. This creates the obvious sense of liveliness and urgency ... Bellaigue sets about the task with such confidence and skill that it works ... a dazzling and dark work. Witty and often wise, it speaks to the frailties and the precarity of power -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *Vivid and compelling ... He presents his story like a novel, but it is not fiction; every detail has been diligently researched, for example by perusing diaries in difficult Venetian dialect ... Whether he is describing a lavish dinner for Italian merchants on the Bosporus, the stately progress of Suleiman's armies through the Balkans or a mass circumcision, he has an eye for the colourful, absurd and ironic ... As this book shows, living in the penumbra of such supreme power can be seductive and intoxicating. But the end of the story is often tragic * Economist *Wolf Hall for the Ottoman Empire ... History at its most gripping * Daily Telegraph *This account really grips... it does so by bringing out the fascinating individuals, the adventure, the lurid details, the barbarities, the opulence and squalor and near misses of the story -- Melanie McDonagh * Evening Standard *Poised effortlessly between two worlds and two ages, a book as pungent and mysterious as the age it depicts -- RORY STEWART, former British Cabinet Minister and author of The Places In BetweenA complex piece of history told with extraordinary clarity * Spectator, *Best Books of 2022* *Christopher de Bellaigue has a magic talent for writing history It is as if we are there as the era of Suleyman the Magnificent unfolds -- ORHAN PAMUK, Nobel Laureate in LiteratureEssential reading for anyone wishing to understand political ambition and the role of narcissistic leaders and scheming courtiers in any age -- ROBERT PESTON, Political Editor ITV NewsGripping, novelistic ... brisk and muscular ... written in a sure-footed historical present, the book creates a simulacrum of the 16th century through the painstaking accumulation of attested details ... [giving] the book its vividness and energy ... [De Bellaigue] writes with supreme confidence about power, diplomacy, clothing, avarice, war, statecraft and the exceptional brutality of the era ... While The Lion House unfolds like a novel, through scenes rich with authenticating detail -- Marcel Theroux * The New York Times Book Review *De Bellaigue is a riveting and expert guide to the story of Suleyman's quest for power -- PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk RoadsNarrated with a verve and flair that make the characters burst from the pages. Outstanding history and an incredibly good read -- EUGENE ROGAN, author of The Fall of the OttomansExquisite ... So arresting is this book, so enveloping in the tensions of its narrative, that most readers will feel a pang of sorrow that the tale does not run on. The Lion House leaves us with a tease, or taunt: "Who, apart from God, can say what will come next?" A sequel, surely. Although it was the peak of the Ottoman Empire, Suleyman's reign also offers clear glimpses of a great decline to come. Who better to tell us about it than Mr de Bellaigue? * Wall Street Journal *Non-fiction with the readability of a thriller. Unputdownable -- VICTORIA HISLOP, author of The IslandSensuous and scholarly, meticulously researched and deliciously irreverent, The Lion House is an intoxicating journey through the Ottomans' golden age -- AMBERIN ZAMAN, correspondent, Al-Monitor, Turkey correspondent for the Economist (1999-2016) and Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, DCReads like the most gripping fiction ... could very well be Netflix's next epic * Radio Times *The Lion House presents a historical universe that captivates and astonishes and is near-impossible to put down. A superb example of historical literature and research -- RICHARD WHATMORE, Professor of Modern History at the University of St AndrewsFull of breath-taking events at the cross-roads of empires at a moment in history when notions such as Europe, Asia, Christianity and Islam were infinitely more fluid and permeable than they are today -- KEREM OKTEM, Professor of International Relations at Ca' Foscari University, VeniceOriginal... de Bellaigue... offers a vivid presentation of events, re-imagined as scenes and episodes... a different, literary kind [of history] -- Noel Malcolm * Times Literary Supplement *De Bellaigue writes with impecable scholarship, piecing together contemporary accounts to create a thrilling narrative * Church Times *De Bellaigue is an expert stylist, sensitive to rhythm and vocabulary, and passionate in his pursuit of the fugitive detail that gives meaning to a whole episode * Literary Review *An exhilarating read -- Rose Shepherd * Saga Magazine *An engrossing book... This is history turned into drama and poetry, awesomely spectacular yet also intensely intimate -- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown * iNews *

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Book Synopsis From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks – writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Trade Review‘Didion at her most fascinatingly unfiltered, recording folksy vernacular at a motel pool, having G & Ts with Walker Percy, and searching fruitlessly for Faulkner’s grave in an Oxford cemetery … her riffs on everything from Gertrude Atherton to crossing the Golden Gate bridge for the first time in three-inch heels captures the thrill of a writer discovering her richest subject: the American mythologies that governed her own romantic girlhood, a yearning for an MGM-style heritage that never really was – a yearning that feels freshly perilous in its delusions.’ Vogue ‘Every era needs better criticism … And so it’s been a relief to read [South and West], investigating the South and its “vertiginous preoccupation with race, class, heritage, style and the absence of style”’ Adam Thirlwell, TLS, Books of the Year ‘Let your heart skip a beat. For here be new writing from the mind behind The Year of Magical Thinking and The White Album – Joan Didion. But this isn’t just for Didionites … For an understanding of certain parts of modern America, it still has eerie resonance … An insight into the process of a writer who can truly be referred to as an icon’ Emerald Street ‘A compelling book — rooted utterly in a past now all but lost to us, while also incredibly timely and relevant … It bears the hallmarks of Didion’s sparkling prose’ Los Angeles Review of Books ‘You'll learn more about America's future from Didion's 40-year-old field notes than you will from tomorrow's newspaper’ Esquire ‘There’s a universal rule against reading someone else’s diary – but in this case, it’s not just OK, it’s required reading’ Marie Claire ‘The power of Didion’s work is on striking display in this slender volume … Didion’s notes are remarkably polished and slicing; they shimmer with dark implications’ Booklist ‘Here are many of the splendid, sharp-eyed sentences for which [Didion] has long been admired … An almost spectral text haunted by a past that never seems distant’ Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017''A brilliant, compelling, propulsively written, magnificent tour de force'' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard''The second volume of what will surely rank as one of the greatest historical achievements of our age ... The War and Peace of history: a book you fear you will never finish, but just cannot put down'' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Well before 1929, Stalin had achieved dictatorial power over the Soviet empire, but now he decided that the largest peasant economy in the world would be transformed into socialist modernity, whatever it took. What it took, and what Stalin managed to force through, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Rather than a tale of a deformed or paranoid personality creating a political system, this is a story of a political system shaping a personality. Building and running a dictatorship, with power of life or death over hundreds of millions, in conditions of capitalist self-encirclement, made Stalin the person he became.Wholesale collectivization of agriculture, some 120 million peasants, necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, but Stalin did not flinch; the resulting mass starvation and death elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. By 1934, when the situation had stabilized and socialism had been built in the countryside too, the internal praise came for his uncanny success in anticapitalist terms. But Stalin never forgot and never forgave, with bloody consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite.Stalin had revived a great power with a formidable industrialized military. But the Soviet Union was effectively alone, with no allies and enemies perceived everywhere. The quest to find security would bring Soviet Communism into an improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain did not work out as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective countries, drew ever closer to collision.Stalin: Waiting for Hitler: 1929-1941 is, like its predecessor Stalin: Paradoxes of Power: 1878-1928, nothing less than a history of the world from Stalin''s desk. It is also, like its predecessor, a landmark achievement in the annals of the biographer''s art. Kotkin''s portrait captures the vast structures moving global events, and the intimate details of decision-making.Trade ReviewMasterly, a riveting tale, written with pace and aplomb. [of volume one] * New York Times *Exhilarating, compelling, terrifying and utterly gripping... Stalin emerges from Kotkin's book as that most frightening of figures -- a man of absolute conviction. [of volume one] -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * New Statesman *Original, engaging, with a sharp, irreverent wit [of volume one] -- Sheila Fitzpatrick * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis One of the most remarkable memoirs ever written. The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body. A masterpiece and a bestseller in France.Trade Review‘The most remarkable memoir of our time.’ Cynthia Ozick ‘Read this book and fall back in love with life.’ Edmund White ‘A staggering piece of work. It represents an almost inconceivable act of generosity, the gift of the mind and the spirit for which writing was designed.’ A. L. Kennedy ‘One of the great books of the century.’ Financial Times ‘Everyone in the country should own at least one copy.’ Guardian ‘We listen, because what he has to say goes to the core of what it means to be human.’ Robert McCrum, Observer ‘The most extraordinary book of the year.’ Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisJerry Seinfeld picks out his best comedy writing over the last five decades

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsMap 1. Strandline Gleaner - Beachcombing & wrecking around Cornwall’s coast 2. Island Fisher - Eel fishing & lobster potting in St Martin’s & St Agnes 3. Rock Pool Pilgrim - Spring tide on the north coast 4. Depth Plumber - Freediving off the Lizard Peninsula 5. Caul Child - Making handplanes & bellyboards in Porthtowan 6. Wind Worker - Running away to sea 7. Memory Keeper - Searching for cowrie shells 8. Wave Rider - Surfing Cornwall’s Badlands 9. Ocean Wanderer - Watching a walrus in St Mary’s 10. Dawn Patroller - Swimming in St Ives 11. Oar Raiser - Pilot gig rowing in Mount’s Bay 12. Horizon Scanner - Wildlife watching at St Agnes Head 13. Songline Shaper - Beach art at Porthcurno A Glossary of Sea Words Notes Selected Bibliography Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisOne of bell hooks'' foundational works introduced to the UK for the first time.''With the emotion of poetry, the narrative of a novel, and the truth of experience, bell hooks weaves a girlhood memoir you won''t be able to put down?or forget. Bone Black takes us into the cave of self-creation'' Gloria SteinemStitching together the threads of her girlhood memories, bell hooks shows us one strong-spirited child''s journey toward becoming the pioneering writer we know. Along the way, hooks sheds light on the vulnerability of children, the special unfurling of female creativity and the imbalance of a society that confers marriage''s joys upon men and its silences on women.In a world where daughters and fathers are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about, hooks uncovers the solace to be found in solitude, the comfort to be had in the good company of books.Bone Black allows us to bear witness to the awakening of a legendary author''s awareness that writing is her most vital breath.

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Book Synopsis'Painfully honest on what it means to be a woman who puts art first, no matter what' Olivia LaingI'm not a portrait painter. If I'm anything, I have always been an autobiographer.In Self-Portrait, Celia Paul reveals a life truly lived through art. She moves effortlessly through time, in words and images, from her arrival at the Slade School of Fine Art at sixteen, through a profound and intense affair with the older and better-known artist Lucian Freud, to the practices of her present-day studio. This intimate memoir is, at its heart, about a young woman navigating the path to artistic freedom, with all the sacrifices and complications that entails.'Powerful' Zadie Smith'Engrossing' Vogue'Captivating... Mesmerising' New York Times**Shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize **Trade ReviewCaptivating... Mesmerizing... Paul's powers of observation are keen and often ruthless. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *A poetic, sometimes painfully honest memoir. -- Tim Adams * Observer *I loved the painter Celia Paul’s memoir Self-Portrait. It’s fascinating for its account of her long-term lover Lucian Freud (he emerges as the ultimate man-baby, by turns charismatic, needy and breathtakingly selfish), but it’s also painfully honest on what it means to be a woman who puts art first, no matter what. -- Olivia Laing * New Statesman *The publication of this, her first book, is of great significance... Having recently returned to writing again, she has found a new confidence, in words, in herself and in her painting... No longer wanting to remain simply a part of Freud’s story, she wanted to make him part of her story, a narrative about her life as a painter. ... Paul’s memoir therefore seems fresh, and comes as a surprise. -- Frances Spalding * Guardian, *Book of the Week* *A story of obsession and manipulation that sends our feelings on a rollercoaster... [Self-Portrait] turns into a sort of myth about the misuse of fame and the male ego, about the struggles faced by creative women, about the body in all its guises. Like a myth, it unfolds with confusions and contradictions, a terrible inevitability and many, many discomfiting truths. -- Jan Dalley * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating true story behind HBO's Catherine the Great starring Dame Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution. Robert K. Massie brings an eternally fascinating woman together with her family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies – vividly and triumphantly to life. History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great.Trade ReviewA biographer with the instincts of a novelist * New York Times *A masterful portrait of a majestic monarch * Publishers Weekly *A sensitive and compelling portrait not just of a Russian titan, but also of a flesh-and-blood woman * Newsweek *

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Book SynopsisSarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood, growing up on the "hippie trail" through Asia and in Australia. She studied philosophy at the University of Essex, and worked for many years as a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library, London, before becoming a full-time writer. Her books include How to Live: a life of Montaigne, which won the Duff Cooper Prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Prize, and At the Existentialist Café, a New York Times Ten Best Books of 2016. She was also among the winners of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. She still has a tendency to wander, but is mostly to be found either in London or in Italy with her wife and their family of dogs and chickens.www.sarahbakewell.comTrade ReviewIt's not often that you miss your bus stop because you're so engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly that while immersed in Sarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café. The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange, fun and compelling reading. If it doesn't win awards, I will eat my proof copy -- Katy Guest * The Independent on Sunday *My book of the year is Sarah Bakewell’s At The Existentialist Café, a marvellously rich and evocative journey through one of the most powerful philosophical movements of the twentieth century… This graceful book speaks to our parochial and inward-looking age. -- Sudhir Hazareesingh * Times Literary Supplement, Book of the Year *A wonderfully readable combination of biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection. -- John Walsh * Independent *At the Existentialist Café takes us back to…when philosophers and philosophy itself were sexy, glamorous, outrageous; when sensuality and erudition were entwined… [Bakewell] shows how fascinating were some of the existentialists’ ideas and how fascinating, often frightful, were their lives. Vivid, humorous anecdotes are interwoven with a lucid and unpatronising exposition of their complex philosophy… Tender, incisive and fair. -- Jane O’Grady * Daily Telegraph *Quirky, funny, clear and passionate…Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSuperbly translated... Alexievich's choice of truth as hero is the right one for the age of Putin and Trump -- Giles Whittell * The Times *As shattering and addictive as Chernobyl Prayer, this is a polyphonic tour de force that shines a light on war, the plight of heroes, and why post-Soviet Russia is as it is -- Kapka Kassabova * Herald Scotland *A masterpiece of reportage * New York Review of Books *Alexievich is like a doctor probing the scar tissue of a traumatised nation -- Guy Chazan * Financial Times *What Alexievich is doing is giving voice to the voiceless, exposing not only stories we wouldn't otherwise hear but individuals as well -- David Ulin * Los Angeles Times *The least well-known wonderful writer I've ever come across -- Jenni Murray * BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour *Alexievich serves no ideology, only an ideal: to listen closely enough to the ordinary voices of her time to orchestrate them into extraordinary books -- Philip Gourevitch * New Yorker *Alexievich has become one of my heroes -- Atul GawandeThe Belarusian writer has spent decades in listening mode. Alexievich put in thousands of hours with her tape recorder across the lands of the former Soviet Union, collecting and collating stories from ordinary people. She wove those tales into elegant books of such power and insight, that in 2015 she received the Nobel prize for literature -- Shaun Walker * Guardian *Alexievich's "documentary novels" are crafted and edited with a reporter's cool eye for detail and a poet's ear for the intricate rhythms of human speech. Reading them is like eavesdropping on a confessional. This is history at its rawest and most uncomfortably intimate -- Andrew Dickson * Evening Standard *Alexievich's artistry has raised oral history to a totally different dimension -- Antony Beevor

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksIn one of the great English war memoirs, we learn what it is to cross the Pyrenees through freezing snow to fight fascism in Spain; to narrowly escape execution by your own side; to kill a man with a borrowed rifle and feel nothing but shame. Moving and shrapnel-sharp, A Moment of War recalls the defeat of idealism; that flush of youth which never doubts self-survival, that idiot belief in luck'.

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Book SynopsisRoald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was educated in England before starting work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa, and began writing after a 'monumental bash on the head' sustained as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. He worked in a tiny hut in the apple orchard of his house in Buckinghamshire until his death in 1990 at the age of 74. Roald Dahl's many books continue to be read by children the world over who delight in the magic of his marvellous storytelling. His books continue to be bestsellers, despite his death in 1990, and total sales are 100 million worldwide!Trade ReviewA shimmering fabric of his yesterdays, the magic and the hurt * Observer *Brilliantly coloured, sometimes grotesque and sometimes magical * Sunday Times *As frightening and funny as his fiction * New York Times Book Review *

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Book Synopsis''TRULY INSPIRING'' Mail on SundayNow familiar to millions of Gardeners'' World fans as Longmeadow (the home of Nigel & Nellie), this is the story of Monty & Sarah Don''s early days there. The Jewel Garden is the story of the garden that bloomed from the muddy fields around the Dons'' Tudor farmhouse, a perfect metaphor for the Monty and Sarah''s own rise from the ashes of a spectacular commercial failure in the late ''80s .At the same time The Jewel Garden is the story of a creative partnership that has weathered the greatest storm, and a testament to the healing powers of the soil. Monty Don has always been candid about the garden''s role in helping him to pull back from the abyss of depression; The Jewel Garden elaborates on this much further. Written in an optimistic, autobiographical vein, Monty and Sarah''s story is truly an exploration of what it means to be a gardener.Trade ReviewTruly inspiring... Told with compelling honesty * Mail on Sunday *Overwhelmingly honest, passionate, inspiring, with prose to die for. Like everything else Don does, this purports to be about gardens and gardening but is actually a meditation on family and love. * Julie Myerson, Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday *Overwhelmingly honest, passionate, inspiring, with prose to die for... a meditation on family and love * Independent on Sunday *Truly inspiring ... told with compelling honesty * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisAn extraordinary memento of a life-changing moment in history, artist Vic Lee’s visually stunning, graphic novel–style personal diary chronicles his experience of the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolded. With beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and typography, Vic Lee’s Corona Diary vividly captures what it was like to live through this unprecedented period. Listening to daily news stories, experiencing different ways of living and working as well as adapting to new and necessary social controls, renowned London artist, illustrator and storyteller Vic Lee documents the first six months of the pandemic in real time. An epilogue spread touches on the events of July, August and September.Reflect on and process the unforgettable events of the pandemic through an intimate account in images and lettering of the initial news from a place called Wuhan, Italy’s first cases then state of emergency, its spreaTrade ReviewAs the lives of all of us have played out over through the pandemic the book will be a great visual read for many as a reflection and reminder of what we’ve been through, via the lens of a visual artist who was compelled to take up his brush and document the worst global crisis of recent times. -- Derek Brazell * Association of Illustrators *One of The Most Anticipated Graphic Novels of 2021 According to Goodreads Members -- Tommy Williams * GeekTyrant *The book is a chaotic collage that hangs together because its apparent formlessness echoes the uncertainty of the pandemic, the need to constantly remain on alert. It can be tricky to create a memoir as you are living it, but Lee benefits because his circumstance is shared by us. His book is full of small moments of recognition. -- David Ulin * The Orange County Register *The 88-page book tells the story of the pandemic year — the highs and the lows, from clapping campaigns for front-line workers to toilet paper shortages and the vaccine rollout efforts. -- Victoria Craig * Marketplace.org *This diary includes news, witty observations and a little bit of comedy though it doesn’t shy away from the lives that have been lost or the social impact of the pandemic. -- Neymat Raboobee * BookRiot *Created as the year 2020 unfolded, Lee’s personal and cathartic memoir conveys the ups and downs felt by people throughout the world—from the earliest news of an outbreak in Wuhan to lockdowns and toilet paper shortages to the growing numbers of victims, opinions and reactions. -- Holly Davis * Artists Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA revised edition of St John’s reflections on his profound spiritual experience and love for Jesus Christ and the Church.Table of ContentsPreface Part 1 My Life in Christ Part 2 My Life in Christ Notes Subject Index Scripture Index

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisWith revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this revealing memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name. For the record…Fred Trump never asked for any of this. The divisive politics. The endless headlines. A hijacked last name. The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real estate scion to gossip column fixture to TheApprentice host to President of the United States. Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career. But a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto a center stage that he had never wanted. And now, at a crucial point for our nation, he is stepping forward again. In All in the Family, Fred delves into his journey to become a “different kind of Trump,” detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family. From the Trump house to the White H

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA definitive biography of the life of Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh written by bestselling royal and celebrity biographer Sean Smith

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Book SynopsisFrom Paris to Prague, from the past to the present, authors and artists explore what Europe means to them - and us. Through moving personal letters, hilarious anecdotes, brilliant new fiction, and original illustrations, Postcards to Europe paints a picture of a nation and a continent, and how they define each other. Featuring some of the biggest, best and brightest names from the world of fiction, current affairs, politics, art, film, history and food. There is nothing like this out there and every reader will find something to cherish and share in this stunning collection. Contributed to by: Richard Herring, Alain de Botton, Sarah Perry, Matt Haig, Bee Wilson, Andrew Roberts, Oliver Kamm, Hari Kunzru, Colonel Tim Collins, Jessie Burton, Kate Eberlen, Will Self, Adam Dant, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jennifer Higgie, Simon Garfield, Ian Rankin, Mark Kermode, Amy Liptrot, Nicci French, Rob Temple, Afua Hirsch, Sarah Winman, Sunny Singh, Owen Jones, David Shrigley, Ben Collins, Henry Marsh,

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Book SynopsisThe story of one man's unorthodox path to politics, from Labour Minister and Sunday Times-bestselling author Chris Bryant.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis'A thrilling read' Tom Holland 'History-writing at its best' Barry Strauss By the end of his short life, Alexander the Great had redrawn the map of the ancient world to create an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indian subcontinent. But his success was not just the product of his own genius and restless energy, it was built on decades of effort by his father. History has portrayed Philip II of Macedon as a one-eyed old man whose assassination allowed Alexander to accede to power. But there was far more to him than this. Through decades of hard fighting and clever diplomacy, Philip unified his country and conquered Greece. His son inherited all of this at the perfect moment for him to win yet greater glory. The work of a master historian, Philip and Alexander describes how Philip and Alexander of Macedon transformed a weak kingdom in northern Greece into a globe-spanning empire and – in so doing – changed the course of history.Trade ReviewAs successful in meeting its ambitions as Philip's kingship, as sweeping as Alexander's conquests -- Tom HollandBelongs on the (sturdy) shelf of any reader interested in military, political, or social history * Minerva Magazine *By pairing the two giants of Macedonia, Goldsworthy helps the reader understand Alexander's life all the better, and sheds light on the achievements and character of Philip * Aspects of History *Sterling scholarship, engaging prose, insightful analysis, and unbiased assessment -- Victor Davis HansonA gripping history that combined deep scholarship with readability... This is an epic history. Very much in the vein of the Tom Holland histories of empire, enjoyable and informative but also gripping' * NB Magazine *Contributes significantly to making these scholarly developments accessible to a very wide audience, through engaging narratives which capture the political complexity of the Greek world both before and after Alexander. The major innovation of Goldsworthy's vivid Philip and Alexander is to pair Alexander's biography with that of his father, Philip II * TLS *Adrian Goldsworthy takes a fresh approach to the well-worn tale, dealing with the gaps in our knowledge with candour and resisting the urge to fill them with speculation * Military History Monthly *

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Book SynopsisWITH A FOREWORD FROM SIR ALAN BATES'Jo is an inspiration', Monica Dolan, who played Jo in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office'My first big discrepancy came in the shape of a £2,000 shortfall that just made no sense at all. Of all the things that kept me awake once in the thick of the nightmare that unfolded, it was being stuck in that truly incomprehensible moment where the mere touch of a button suddenly turned £2,000 into £4,000 within three minutes on that cold December night in 2003.'Jo Hamilton was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 based on information from the Post Office's faulty Horizon accounting system. She was told to put right a wrong she hadn't committed and pushed to the very brink of her existence - remortgaging her house, borrowing from anyone she could in order to repay money that she hadn't taken, and questioning her own sanity.Immortalised in ITV smash hit drama, Mr Bates v The Post Office, this is Jo Hamilton's extraordinary first-hand account of how she built a Post Office that was at the very heart of her community and lost it all through no fault of her own. For the first time, beyond the headlines and the corridors of the High Court and the UK's political institutions, we will finally hear Jo's full story and the human side of this scandal as well as the untold struggle she faced during the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern history. Ultimately, this is a story of hope and the strength of community and the ability of a few to fight back against the odds.

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Book Synopsis'Generous, moving and alive. A gift' - Tim Dee, author of Greenery'Intelligent, thought-provoking and always, always interesting' - Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment'Smyth writes with warmth and engaging perception about our relationship and understanding of the natural world on our doorsteps' - Jon Dunn, author of The Glitter in the Green'Fresh and tender and playful' - Patrick Galbraith, author of In Search of One Last SongWeren't they richer, rock pools, wasn't the seashore busier, when I was a kid?Richard Smyth had always been drawn to the natural world, but when he became a father he found a new joy and a new urgency in showing his kids the everyday wild things around them. As he and his children explore rockpools in Whitley Bay, or the woods and moors near his Yorkshire home, he imagines the world they might inhabit as they grow up. Through different objects discovered on their wanderings - a beech leaf, a jay feather, a limpetshell - Smyth examines his own past as well as that of the early natural historians, weaving together history, memoir, and environmentalism to form a new kind of nature writing: one that asks both what we have lost, and what we have yet to find.Trade ReviewAll children are born naturalists and wedded to the living world. One of the tragedies of modern human life is that adulthood demands that we forget or suppress or deny this first love. By watching human nature: seeing his children become themselves, reporting on curious naturalists of old, reflecting on his own evolution as a nature-lover, Richard Smyth has been able to take steps towards rewilding himself and doing so he offers us all the chance to recover our inner animal selves. This is a touching book in all senses of the word, it is his tenderest book yet, and his truest. Generous, moving and alive. A gift. -- Tim Dee, author of GREENERYIntelligent, thought-provoking and always, always interesting. Children are full of wonder but they are also full of questions, forcing us to look afresh at the world around us. What I love about Richard Smyth's writing is his willingness to engage with moral grey areas - the uncomfortable and the unexpected. He also makes me laugh. Dark and light: that's what I want from a book -- Cal Flyn, author of ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENTA searching study of the nature of curiosity, and the curiosity of nature, Smyth writes with warmth and engaging perception about our relationship and understanding of the natural world on our doorsteps -- Jon Dunn, author of THE GLITTER IN THE GREENFresh and tender and playful. In truth, a book about sharing the wonders of nature with your kids could be the ickiest thing going, but it isn't that at all. It's about society and love and identity but it's also a raw exploration of the way that children experience the world and the way that those experiences challenge adult self-delusion. Nature writing can be earnest and handwringing but this book isn't: I laughed and laughed. I imagine it wasn't Smyth's intention to write a call to breed but it's hard to read The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell without thinking that really we should all have some children, to avoid missing out on the joy of showing them finches in the park -- Patrick Galbraith, author of IN SEARCH OF ONE LAST SONGA delightfully irreverent, charming and hilarious guide on how to engage young children with nature, written with a real understanding of the way they experience the world -- Stephen Moss, author of TEN BIRDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLDRichard Smyth mixes up a rollicking and compulsively readable cocktail of memoir, environmental history, and tips for the nature-minded parent. Irreverent and earnest in perfect measure, The Jay, The Beech and the Limpetshell is, at heart, an ode to wonder -- Thor Hanson, author of BUZZ and HURRICANE LIZARDS AND PLASTIC SQUIDThe Jay, The Beech and the Limpetshell is a marvellous book, in that it is full of marvels. Richard's prose is one such marvel: fast-paced, musical, and frequently very funny. So too his erudition and seemingly effortless range of reference. Most marvellous of all, though, is his loving, achingly honest commitment to bequeathing his children a world at which to marvel -- Nick Acheson, author of THE MEANING OF GEESEDazzling and moving. -- The Times Literary Supplement

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Book Synopsis'Charming, touching and very very funny' Jenny Colgan'Simply too good' Daily MailFrom the author of the Times bestselling A Chip Shop in PoznanONE HOUSE. TWO HOUSEMATES. THREE REASONS TO WORRY: WINNIE AND BEN ARE SEPARATED BY 50 YEARS, A GULF IN CLASS, AND MAJOR DIFFERENCES OF OPINION.When hunting for a room in London, Ben Aitken came across one for a great price in a lovely part of town. There had to be a catch. And there was. The catch was Winnie: an 85-year-old widow who doesn't suffer fools.Full of warmth, wit and candour, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship during an unlikely time. Imagine an intergenerational version of Big Brother, but with only two contestants. One of the pair a grieving and inflexible former aristocrat in her mid-eighties. The other a working-class millennial snowflake. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go right?Out of the most inauspicious of soils - and from the author of The Gran Tour - comes a book about grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade.Trade ReviewCharming, touching and very very funny * Jenny Colgan *Displays a keen eye for the humour of everyday life ... underneath it all is the wonderful story of two people born half a century apart, learning lessons from each other. * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisGabriel Weston was born in 1970. She studied English at Edinburgh University before attending medical school in London and becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2003. Her Sunday Times bestselling debut, Direct Red, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the PEN-Ackerley Award for Autobiography, while her novel Dirty Work won the McKitterick Prize. The presenter of several BBC TV series, including Trust Me I'm a Doctor and Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston's Casebook, she currently works as a part-time surgeon and lives in London with her husband and children.

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Book Synopsis'Not all Essex girls are party girls. They can be sages, martyrs, leaders. In her neat and provocative little book, Sarah Perry celebrates their courage and vivacity.' Hilary Mantel A defence and celebration of the Essex Girl by the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent Essex Girls are disreputable, disrespectful and disobedient. They speak out of turn, too loudly and too often, in an accent irritating to the ruling classes. Their bodies are hyper-sexualised and irredeemably vulgar. They are given to intricate and voluble squabbling. They do not apologise for any of this. And why should they? In this exhilarating feminist defence of the Essex girl, Sarah Perry re-examines her relationship with her much maligned home county. She summons its most unquiet spirits, from Protestant martyr Rose Allin to the indomitable Abolitionist Anne Knight, sitting them alongside Audre Lorde, Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau, and showing us that the Essex girl is not bound by geography. She is a type, representing a very particular kind of female agency, and a very particular kind of disdain: she contains a multitude of women, and it is time to celebrate them.Trade ReviewNot all Essex girls are party girls. They can be sages, martyrs, leaders. In her neat and provocative little book, Sarah Perry celebrates their courage and vivacity. -- Hilary MantelIn each account, as in her fiction, Perry displays her gift for peeling back the layers of our present day to exhume forgotten lives. The arguments are clear, the prose is stiletto sharp... The Essex Girl daringly holds up a mirror to the rest of Britain. * Daily Telegraph *Praise for Sarah Perry: 'A hugely talented author' -- Sarah WatersA polemic that makes room for both Kim Kardashian and Harriet Martineau * Guardian Biggest Books of Autumn 2020 *The always-enthralling Perry returns with a spiky and subversive look at the power of all things Essex - and a feminist defence of "Essex girls". * the i Paper *Perry is a wonderful descriptive writer with a remarkable talent for making the familiar strange ... She bleeds light into darkness and back again * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA FINALIST FOR THE US NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2023 FOR NONFICTION 'Profoundly personal as well as historically significant ... In his moral clarity and baring of the heart, Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi' Hisham Matar, New York Times Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognise his father's courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja's own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably. This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians, but a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship.Trade ReviewPowerful ... It's a mark of Shehadeh's brilliance that this latest revisiting is full of surprises: it's even in tone, but jet-fuelled by implicit emotion; there's no conventional suspense, but it is absolutely gripping ... masterly -- Rachel Aspden * Guardian *A striking story of loss, heartbreak and political perfidy ... This is a tragedy within a tragedy, of a father and son who, despite their similarities, failed to understand one another, against the backdrop of dispossession of the Palestinian people -- Lara Marlowe * Irish Times *Highly readable ... thought-provoking * Observer *Slim but powerful - rich in recent historical detail with a poignant personal trauma threading in and out of it. This is a Palestinian memoir that will endure -- Gerald Butt * Church Times *Praise for the author: 'Palestine's greatest prose writer * Observer *Going Home cements the author's reputation as the best-known Palestinian writing in English * Guardian *Luminously clear-sighted ... By turns lyrical, witty and shrewd, Shehadeh is an excellent walking companion * Prospect *Shehadeh is a great inquiring spirit with a tone that is vivid, ironic, melancholy and wise -- Colm TóibínRaja Shehadeh is a buoy in a sea of bleakness -- Rachel Kushner

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Book Synopsis‘Women have won their political independence. Now is the time for them to achieve their economic freedom too.’This was the great rallying cry of the pioneers who, in 1919, created the Women’s Engineering Society. Spearheaded by Katharine and Rachel Parsons, a powerful mother and daughter duo, and Caroline Haslett, whose mission was to liberate women from domestic drudgery, it was the world’s first professional organisation dedicated to the campaign for women's rights.Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines tells the stories of the women at the heart of this group – from their success in fanning the flames of a social revolution to their significant achievements in engineering and technology. It centres on the parallel but contrasting lives of the two main protagonists, Rachel Parsons and Caroline Haslett – one born to privilege and riches whose life ended in dramatic tragedy; the other who rose from humble roots to become the leading professional woman of her age and mistress of the thrilling new power of the twentieth century: electricity.In this fascinating book, acclaimed biographer Henrietta Heald also illuminates the era in which the society was founded. From the moment when women in Britain were allowed to vote for the first time, and to stand for Parliament, she charts the changing attitudes to women’s rights both in society and in the workplace.Trade Review 'A fascinating social history' Times Literary Supplement 'Well-written, vigorous... shows how Britain's female engineers were key figures in modernisation' BBC History Magazine 'At its heart, this is a group biography of the Women's Engineering Society... Yet Henrietta Heald also spins her story outward, taking in the ways in which the society's members became pioneers not just in engineering and technology but also politics, suffrage and social reform' History Revealed 'Meticulously researched... provides a fascinating account of a century of change for women' Journal of SMEE

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Book SynopsisA NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR'Exquisite... a beautiful book, one of the finest meditations on animal companionship that I have ever read' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian An instant New York Times bestseller, this is an unforgettable story about love, loss and redemption from a highly acclaimed writerCaleb Carr lived with cats ever since he was a young boy. He grew up in a turbulent household where famous Beat poets, artists and addicts came and went and his steadiest companions were pets. Since then he had many feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he encounter someone extraordinary: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten and was languishing in a shelter. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose him. For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the dangerous wilderness surrounding it. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb learned to decode much of Masha's inner life but their bond went far beyond owner and pet. Inspiring, heart-breaking and life-affirming, this is a love story like no other.

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Book SynopsisThe romantic novelist Ethel M. Dell was a recluse, and actively avoided marketing herself as a personality in any way, but her formula was successful. She reached a very large audience publishing 98 titles and earning, at the height of her career, about 4M annually in today's values. Her plots included a popular and heady mix of heterosexual, implicit same-sex relationships, sexual deviances, gratuitous violence, death and exoticised notions of Empire and masculinity. Although being publishing alongside literary giants she was vilified by the establishment no doubt jealous of her substantial earnings. With an escapist and non-literary appeal to a lower middle class reader universe Ethel used a very successful multi-media marketing strategy with magazine serialisation, hard copy books, film, theatre and radio to reach this audience in the UK, the United States, Europe and the British colonies. A forerunner to Mills and Boom's success Ethel was very influential in setting the scene for m

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Book Synopsis'Well told, personable, fast-paced, and undoubtedly a fascinating read' Daily TelegraphGripping, moving and wildly exhilarating, Mud, Sweat and Tears is a must-read for adrenalin junkies and armchair adventurers alike.Bear Grylls is a man who has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, he was taught by his father to sail and climb at an early age. As a teenager he found identity and purpose through both mountaineering and martial arts, which led the young adventurer to the foothills of the mighty Himalaya and a grandmaster's karate training camp in Japan.On returning home, he embarked upon the notoriously gruelling selection course for the British Special Forces to join 21 SAS - a journey that was to push him to the very limits of physical and mental endurance.Then, in a horrific free-fall parachuting accident, Bear broke his back in three places. It was touch and go whether he would ever walk again. However, only eighteen months later Bear became one of the youngest ever climbers to scale Everest, aged only twenty-three. But this was just the beginning of his many extraordinary adventures . . .Known and admired by millions, Bear Grylls has survived where few would dare to go.Readers are calling Mud, Sweat and Tears:'Extraordinary''Inspirational''Heart pounding''Awe-inspiring''A breath of fresh air''Thrilling''Courageous'Trade ReviewMen don't come much tougher than daredevil climber and adventurer, Bear Grylls * Sun *World-famous 'extreme adventurer' Bear Grylls had so far avoided telling his life story - until now. Well told, personable, fast-paced, and undoubtedly a fascinating read * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA Book of the Year in the FT, Guardian, Observer and on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme'I couldn't love this more' Nigella Lawson'Enchanting, fascinating and humorous' Claudia RodenIs there really such a thing as an authentic dish? In a mouth-watering journey stretching from Paris to Tokyo, join award-winning food writer Anya von Bremzen as she chews over the legend of Margherita pizza, indulges in the craze for high-end noodles and digs into the postcolonial paradoxes of Mexico's mole.Full of eye-opening tales and sparkling wit, National Dish explores the politics of national pride that tie food to place, untangling the myths and misunderstandings around some of the world's most famous cuisines.________________PRAISE FOR NATIONAL DISH:'Sparklingly intelligent' SPECTATOR'A delightfully engaged and engaging writer' OBSERVER'So enli

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