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Book SynopsisWhen she was twenty-four years old, Ellen Anderson Penno lost her partner in a climbing accident while they were ascending Mount Baker in Washington''s Cascade Range. The avalanche hid his body in a crevasse just weeks before Anderson Penno was slated to begin medical school, and she soon found herself torn between deferring her studies for a year, or starting right away with a full course load.Rather than succumbing to grief and risk never beginning her medical education at all, she plunged deep into her studies, surrounded by death on all sides, struggling to maintain her way through her turbulent emotions and a rigorous med school schedule.In this stirring and often mordantly funny new memoir, Ellen Anderson Penno structures a story of mourning, loss, despair and love through the lens of the classic medical text Gray''s Anatomy, showing readers what becomes of those who must rebuild their lives after tragedy strikes.

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Book Synopsis'Tony Leon is not only an experienced politician but also a talented writer, and this book is the highly readable result of that combination.' - Lord William Hague, former British Foreign Secretary and Conservative Party leader 'Anyone who wants to understand South Africa today - a country so beautiful, yet so broken - simply has to read this book.' - Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of MoneyIn his riveting new book, Future Tense, Tony Leon captures and analyses recent South African history, with a focus on the squandered and corrupted years of the past decade. With unique access and penetrating insight, Leon presents a portrait of today's South Africa and prospects for its future, based on his political involvement over thirty years with the key power players: Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. His close-up and personal view of these presidents and their history-making, and many encounters in the wider world, adds vivid colour of a country and planet in upheaval.Written during the first coronavirus lockdown, Future Tense examines the surge of the disease and the response, both of which have crashed the economy and its future prospects.As the founding leader of the Democratic Alliance, Leon also provides an insider view for the first time of the power struggles within that party, which saw the exit of its first black leader in 2019.There is every reason to fear for the future of South Africa but, as Leon argues, 'the hope for a better country remains an improbable, but not an impossible, dream'.Trade Review'Tony Leon is not only an experienced politician but also a talented writer, and this book is the highly readable result of that combination.' * Lord William Hague, former British Foreign Secretary and Conservative Party leader *'Anyone who wants to understand South Africa today - a country so beautiful, yet so broken - simply has to read this book.' * Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money *

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Book SynopsisMemory Pieces is an intimate and evocative memoir in three parts. `Double Unit’ tells the story of Maurice Gee’s parents – Lyndahl Chapple Gee, a talented writer who for reasons that become clear never went on with a writing career, and Len Gee, a boxer, builder, and man’s man. `Blind Road’ is Gee’s story up to the age of eighteen, when his apprenticeship as a writer began. `Running on the Stairs’ tells the story of Margaretha Garden, beginning in 1940, the year of her birth, when she travelled with her mother Greta from Nazi-sympathising Sweden to New Zealand, through to her meeting Maurice Gee when they were working together in the Alexander Turnbull Library in 1967. Design by Keely O’Shannessey

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Book SynopsisCecil Helman, author of prize-winning Suburban Shaman and founder of the academic discipline Medical Anthropology, entrusted this, his last work, to friends and relations before his untimely death in 2009. It is the companion work to Suburban Shaman, bringing together his personal experience of practising medicine with his unique insight into our attitudes to health and illness.

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Book SynopsisThe 1,000-square-mile Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is, for many, a symbol of total disaster: a reminder of shattered ideals and lost lives, now a toxic, dangerous no-man's-land. For Markiyan Kamysh, it became a site of pilgrimage. He and dozens like him call themselves 'stalkers': wild adventurers who sneak past border patrols to spend days getting lost in this apocalyptic environment of dense swampland and desolate villages. Kamysh, the son of a Chornobyl disaster liquidator, takes us with him into this alien world. In electric prose that captures the spectral beauty of the Zone and the reckless spirit of the stalkers, Kamysh tells of hallucinatory journeys alone amid the rusted ruins, of frantic brushes with police and moments of ecstatic oblivion in the wasteland. Written with gonzo energy and brash lyricism, Stalking the Atomic City is a vital, singular document of this dystopian reality.Trade Review'It won me over in convincing style with its passion and purpose... nihilism of the most seductive, invigorating sort' - Sunday Times'An existential travel guide and an experiment in gonzo psychogeography, it stirs obvious comparisons with Hunter S Thompson... mesmerising' - Telegraph'Not since Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano have I been so enthralled by such a poetic rush to madness. But that was fiction: Markiyan Kamysh's epic immersion in this dread symbol of humanity's self-inflicted undoing is shockingly real, recounted in a stunning, original voice as lyrical as it is unnerving' - Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us'Stark, surreal... A visceral, graphic report from dystopia' - Kirkus Reviews'Remarkable' - Guardian'Blunt, bare, ecstatic... [Stalking the Atomic City] has a rare quality of revelation about it and hums with a kind of exhaustedly beautiful intensity.' - Quietus'Grimly fascinating insights... a memorable read' - Independent'An extraordinary window on Chernobyl' - New Scientist

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Book SynopsisA girl from a Yorkshire mining town is barely thirteen when her father kills himself – her brother finds him dying. At sixteen she’s spotted by a rock star and becomes an international Vogue model. Seven years later her brother kills himself in her New York apartment and her mother dies too. With no family left, her life is now one of extreme choices.Fifty years later, Victoria confronts her past and takes her readers on an unflinching voyage through her experiences as a model and beyond. Speaking frankly about loss, love, friendship and ambition, Head Shot is a book of inspiration and purpose.Packed with astonishing images by the photographers Victoria worked with, and the defiant fashions she wore throughout her career, it also bears witness to a time of unparalleled cultural energy and invention; it’s a story in which bags and shoes can, and do, sit right next to life and death.Trade Review'Explosive' Daily Mail'Eye-opening... bears witness to a time of unparalleled cultural energy and invention' Star

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Book SynopsisWhy has the month of November had a special significance – a month in which I seem to have often experienced some particular, even notable, event, change, or development? Chalk it up to chance? Difficult to be sure about that.Sir Patrick Nairne led a remarkable life with a ringside view of history in the making. He fought with the Seaforth Highlanders in North Africa; worked in the post-war Admiralty and Ministry of Defence; organised the first EU Referendum in 1975; led the Department for Health and Social Security; contributed to the Falkland Islands Review Committee; monitored the consultation process in Hong Kong before the territory was handed back to China; and served as the first Chair of the Nuffield Council on bioethics.Patrick was one of the most notable British civil servants of the twentieth century, and in his later years, after being master of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, began to write about his fascinating life and career.In The Coincidence of Novembers, Patrick’s son – curator and writer Sandy Nairne – assembles his father’s writings, including autobiographical pieces from his papers, into a volume which offers a snapshot of the range of his thinking and creativity: his first-hand experience of significant events in public affairs, his watercolours, and his meditations on a life spent working for the public good.

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Book SynopsisVicky Unwin had always known her father – an erstwhile intelligence officer and respected United Nations diplomat – was Czech, but it was not until a stranger turned up on her doorstep that she discovered he was also Jewish.So began a quest to discover the truth about his past – one that perhaps would help answer the niggling doubts she had always had about her ‘perfect’ father. Finally persuading him to allow her to open a closely guarded cache of family books and papers, Vicky discovered the identity of her grandfather: the tormented author and diplomat Hermann Ungar, hugely controversial in both life and in death, who was a protégé and possible lover of Thomas Mann, and a friend of Berthold Brecht and Stefan Zweig. How much of her father’s child was Vicky – and how much of his father’s child was he? As Vicky worked to uncover deeply buried family secrets, she would find herself slowly unpicking the lingering power of ‘survivors’ guilt’ on the generations that followed the Holocaust, and would learn, via a deathbed confession, of the existence of a previously unknown sister.Together, the sisters attempted to come to terms with what had made their father into the deeply flawed, complex, yet charismatic man he has always been, journeying together through grief and heartache towards forgiveness.Trade Review'Vicky Unwin has written a personal history which highlights our very current, global concerns with identity and our place in the world. It is an intimate exploration of family – and the damage that can be passed from every generation to the next. A fascinating read, filled with secrets and suspense.' JoAnne Richards, prize-winning South African author of The Innocence of Roast Chicken‘The Boy from Boskovice tells the compelling story of a daughter’s quest to find out the disturbing truth of who her own father really was ... This is an intimate narrative, cleverly woven, which sees the author courageously coming to terms with her father’s legacy. –Sarah Helm, author of If This is a Woman'In her engaging memoir, Vicky Unwin approaches her family’s hidden history with all the care of an archeologist and bears out Faulkner’s assertion that, “No man is himself, he is the sum of his past.' – Peter Godwin, author of Mukiwa: A WhiteBoy in Africa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun "A fascinating, rich tale, which explores the infinite complexity of human nature when squeezed by the forces of history.” — Michela Wrong, author of Do Not Disturb

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Book Synopsis‘His marginalisation in dual cultures ascribed to him allows him a brilliant birds-eye view of both, which he employs in his bid to untangle the cultural mindsets he comes across’ Muslim News‘Offers invaluable insights into how a modern cosmopolitan navigates the complex and delicate contours of faith, identity and belonging in an otherwise globally, interconnected world’ Ekow Nelson, reimaginingWhether negotiating the mind-games of the Israeli intelligence services or performing ablutions in a London bathroom, Mohammad Chowdhury’s life as a British Muslim travelling the world brings daily challenges. Border Crossings is the story of Chowdhury’s journey, gripping in some parts and shame-inducing in others, as he describes a lifelong struggle to reconcile the British, Asian and Muslim sides of his identity, constantly dealing with the mistrust of Westerners alongside the hypocrisies of his own community and their misunderstanding of Islam.Chowdhury's story echoes the experience of thousands of Western Muslims who since 9/11 have been subjected to a constant barrage of questions that cast doubt over the very goodness of their faith. It is the story of a man who cries when England win the Ashes, yet still finds himself screaming in the face of racism and religious bigotry. This timely book powerfully rejects the poisonous narrative that Muslims can no longer be trusted as honest citizens of the West.Trade Review ‘His marginalisation in dual cultures ascribed to him allows him a brilliant birds-eye view of both, which he employs in his bid to untangle the cultural mindsets he comes across’ Muslim News ‘Offers invaluable insights into how a modern cosmopolitan navigates the complex and delicate contours of faith, identity and belonging in an otherwise globally, interconnected world’ Ekow Nelson, reimagining

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Book SynopsisLulah Ellender's garden in Sussex is an unruly but beloved place. It is also not permanently her own. When just a few weeks after losing her mother, Lulah is told that she and her family might have to leave the rented house that they have made their home, her immediate response is to freeze, to neglect the plants she has spent years cultivating. But before long she finds herself back in the garden, tidying, planning, and planting - putting down roots even though she may not be there to see the shoots emerge. Drawing on her intimate knowledge of this small plot of land in Sussex, as well as her visits to the celebrated gardens close by - Charleston and Sissinghurst, among others - Lulah explores the broader relationship between gardener and garden. From artistic figures such as Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf and Frida Kahlo to the long-gone inhabitants of a ruined village nearby, Lulah considers the ways in which tending the soil, growing plants, and tuning into the unceasing rhythms of nature can help us live with uncertainty and bring a sense of coming home, of feeling grounded, and ultimately of finding one's time-bound place here on Earth. "A lyrical delve into how gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an uncertain future with hope" - Kathy Clugston "A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help us" - Alice Vincent, author of RootboundTrade ReviewA deeply moving book that begins in shadow - with a recently-bereaved mother under threat of eviction - and becomes a light-seeking, hope-giving exploration of what it means to cultivate a garden, a life, a legacy, at a time when so many of us will forever rent, never own, the ground we hold dear. Exquisitely-written and full of tender feeling... It is a book like a secret garden, opening doors onto alternative ways of growing and grounding a life -- Tanya ShadrickWe all make our little utopias in our gardens, our attempts to reclaim memories we never had, the futures we hope for implicit in seasons of growth. They are perpetually renewed, here too, in Lulah Ellender's elegant prose and her gathering of personal histories and defiant rites, as the author proposes that optimism which is the garden, our lives, our homes, our hopes, reborn again and again -- Philip HoareThere are turns of phrase to die for in GROUNDING, and I felt like I was given a guided tour through the gardens of others by Lulah's curious eye. A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help us -- Alice Vincent, author of RootboundI read GROUNDING as I moved through a period of deep uncertainty; leaving my first garden to step towards a great unknown as a new mother with my small family in tow. Ellender's words delivered such solace; a quiet, soothing reminder that we make home through the way we spend our days - each season we pass through leaving its mark on us - allowing our story to unfurl. This story is one of resilience, honesty, hope and healing. Ellender leads us by the hand through all the gardens we both know and do not; reminding us that to sow is a way to carve a life out of uncertainty; to make room for the returning light, always -- Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of The Thin PlacesAn intimate exploration of what it means to be rooted in place and of how a garden can become a safe haven in uncertain times -- Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened MindAs Lulah sows, deadheads and weeds she explores her feelings of place and identity, fear and loss. A lyrical delve into how gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an uncertain future with hope -- Kathy Clugston, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question TimeAn admirer of Ellender's debut Elisabeth's Lists, I also much enjoyed this beguiling blend of memoir and cultural history, in which she describes how she found deep solace in her Sussex garden, even with the threat of eviction from their rented home hanging over her family. While her first instinct was to stop cultivating altogether, she soon went back to putting down roots, even though she knew she might not see the shoots emerge. The result is an absorbing meditation on the reasons that any of us gardens, which had me longing for spring (and ordering a shedload of seeds) -- Caroline Sanderson * Bookseller *Beautifully capture[s] just how important our own patch of ground is to our sense of identity * Daily Mail *Wonderful ... Filled with such a love, such an ache, the child-like need to be understood, the human urge to foster growth -- Jen Campbell * Toast *Glorious... I've read a lot of gardening books... but I've read very few as moving and literary as Grounding * Observer *

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Book SynopsisHumans have always used their hands to create the world around them. But now most of us have gone from being practitioners to theorists, from being producers to consumers. What happens to our society when we are so divorced from the act of making? What happens to us as individuals when we limit the uses to which we put our hands? These are questions that preoccupy Siri Helle when she inherits a cabin of 25 square metres, without electricity, inlet water, or a loo, and decides to build an outhouse herself. Without any previous experience of building anything, she has to learn on the job and what she learns is not just about how to lay a floor and construct walls, but about what she is capable of and about craft and about the satisfactions to be found in making things by hand. Written with humour and insight, Handmade is the inspiring story of someone who tried to do it herself - and did.Trade ReviewThis is a delightful and timely book about resilience and environmental care... This story of ingenuity and determination is an inspirational read for anyone keen to explore how they can live a more self-sufficient life -- Clare Hunter, author of Threads of LifeA paean to the power and purpose of practical skill, celebrating hands-on engagement with the natural world... Handmade champions female strength and skill in the great outdoors and Helle's message, powerfully wrought and lyrically expressed, is that the promise of a different way of living is in our hands -- Esther RutterWhat a delight! Handmade is a highly original invitation to find creativity, intelligence, authenticity and health, all in the palms of our hands -- Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of RootedCharming -- Simon Usborne * The Sunday Times *Beautifully packaged... Celebrating the importance and impact of making lasting things with your hands, [Handmade is] a delightful read that makes for a perfect present -- Francesca Brown * Stylist’s Best New Books for March 2022 *

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Book Synopsis'A powerful, poignant tale of dieting and despair.' The Times'A moving, brutally honest memoir about what it feels like to be fat-shamed.' Mail on Sunday_______________At sixty-four, Jenni Murray's weight had become a disability. She avoided the scales, she wore a uniform of baggy black clothes, refused to make connections between her weight and health issues and told herself that she was fat and happy. She was certainly fat. But the happy part was an Oscar-worthy performance. In private she lived with a growing sense of fear and misery that her weight would probably kill her before she made it to seventy. Interwoven with the science, social history and psychology of weight management, Fat Cow, Fat Chance is a refreshingly honest account of what it's like to be fat when society dictates that skinny is the norm. It asks why we overeat and why, when the weight is finally lost through dieting, do we simply pile the pounds back on again? How do we help young people become comfortable with the way they look? What are the consequences of the obesity epidemic for an already overstretched NHS? And, whilst fat shaming is so often called out, why is it that shouting 'fat cow' at a woman in the street hasn't been included in the list of hate crimes?Fusing politics, science and personal pain, this is a powerful exploration of our battle with obesity._______________'Agony and confusion, humour and hope. A beautiful book.' Susie Orbach, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue'A perceptive look at health and happiness.' Sunday ExpressTrade ReviewA powerful, poignant tale of dieting and despair. * The Times *I'd put this book into every school as a warning to girls - and boys - not to waste their lives obsessing over food. * Mail on Sunday *A perceptive look at health and happiness. * Sunday Express *Jenni has a light touch when writing about hers and others struggles with eating and bodies. She does it too with the science, so that agony and confusion is mixed with humour and hope. A beautiful book. * Susie Orbach *Laudably frank. * The Big Issue *A painfully honest account of [Jenni's] lifelong battle to lose weight and an investigation into the physical and psychological causes of obesity. * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisAre you sitting nicely? Good. Let’s discover exactly what happened after two superstar Labradors chewed up the lockdown internet and found it really quite tasty. He's not kept a diary for decades but here, in Dog Days, Andrew Cotter draws inspiration from the great Samuel Pepys; like him, he bears witness to the extraordinary everyday as the world tilts on its axis in our own unsettling era. And so, with Olive and Mabel at his side - actually, dawdling in the long grass or sleeping upside down - Andrew takes a clear-eyed, often hilarious walk through a year that encompasses all of life from the crushingly mundane to the decidedly odd. Followed by whispers of 'Is that really Olive and Mabel?' - not to mention the occasional Hollywood approach - the three of them pad around literary festivals, breakfast TV, live radio and even an appearance on Good Morning America. Slightly bemused by their fame, Andrew not only pitches up in the iconic Mastermind chair, but makes a return to sports broadcasting to find that it has become rather strange as well. But, always, his pair of utterly endearing, endlessly optimistic and eternally hungry canine companions show just how precious our time is. Especially our time spent in the devoted company of dogs. For fans new and old, this witty, insightful account of a year like no other is an unmissable treat.

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Book SynopsisNicholas Whittaker's much-loved classic recollects the long sunny days of his childhood when, notepad in hand, jam sandwiches in the duffel bag, he happily spent his time jotting down train numbers during the Indian summer of steam and the heyday of diesel.Whittaker returns to his roots in this updated edition, casting a sceptical eye over recent developments, catching up with old acquaintances and considering the toll that half a century of ridicule and a couple of decades of privatisation have wrought upon his beloved pastime.As Andrew Martin notes in his Foreword, this is 'one of the best books ever written about rail enthusiasm'. Equally it is a poetically written memoir of growing up in a more innocent age, a hymn to British eccentricity and to the virtues of observing the world around you: 'Spotters - of trains, planes, buses or birds - are a last redoubt for something rapidly vanishing from our lives: looking outward, seeing, observing. People notice things less and less these days, while watching things more and more.'Praise for the first edition:'An elegy: for the steam trains already vanishing when Whittaker's hobby began in 1964; for the short-lived diesel age which followed; for an era of near innocence.' Times Literary Supplement 'Whittaker writes with humour and considerable evocative power . For anyone who will admit to having a childhood brush with this now derided hobby, Platform Souls brings it all rushing back.' IndependentTrade ReviewWhittaker writes with great warmth and wit and his autobiographical style makes Platform Souls an engaging read, even for those who don't particularly share his love of railways. * Shropshire Review *the author's words sing off the page * Burton Mail *

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Book SynopsisTom Mangold is known to millions as the face of BBC TV's flagship current affairs programme Panorama and as its longest-serving reporter. Splashed! is the 'antidote to the conventional journalist's autobiography' - a compelling, hilarious and raucous revelation of the events that marked an extraordinary life in journalism.Mangold describes his National Service in Germany, where he worked part-time as a smuggler, through his years in the 1950s on Fleet Street's most ruthless newspapers, a time when chequebook journalism ruled and shamelessness was a major skill. Recruited by the BBC, he spent forty years as a broadcaster, developing a reputation for war reporting and major investigations.From world exclusives with fallen women in the red-top days to chaotic interviews with Presidents, Splashed! offers a rare glimpse of the personal triumphs and disasters of a life in reporting, together with fascinating revelations about the stories that made the headlines on Mangold's remarkable journey from print to Panorama.Trade Review"A dazzling read. Riveting, raucous and revelatory." - Anne Robinson; "A rollicking memoir... reminds me of Evelyn Waugh." - Mail on Sunday

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Book SynopsisFULLY UPDATED Arron Banks enjoyed a life of happy anonymity flogging car insurance in Bristol until he dipped his toes into the sharkinfested waters of politics and decided to plunge right in. Charging into battle for Brexit, he tore up the political rule book, sinking £8 million of his personal fortune into a mad-cap campaign targeting ordinary voters up and down the country. His anti-establishment crusade upset everyone from Victoria Beckham to NASA and left MPs open-mouthed. Lurching from comedy to crisis (often several times a day), he found himself in the glare of the media spotlight, fending off daily bollockings from Nigel Farage and po-faced MPs. From talking Brexit with Trump and trying not to embarrass the Queen, to courting communists and wasting a fortune on a pop concert that descended into farce, this is his honest, uncensored and highly entertaining diary of the campaign that changed the course of history.Trade Review'Every Remainer should steel themselves to read it, because the mindset that it captures - one they don't like or understand - is driving change on both sides of the Atlantic.' - Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian

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Book SynopsisChris Rennard's long relationship with the Liberals, and later the Liberal Democrats, began when a compassionate Liberal candidate helped his disabled mother receive her widowed mother allowance. By his 20s Rennard was the most successful election campaigner his party has ever known. He helped the Liberal Party win power in Liverpool in the 1970s and campaigned for Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins in famous by-elections which helped the Liberal SDP Alliance to compete for power before its acrimonious collapse in the late 80's. He was then responsible for a series of spectacular by-election victories that rescued his party's fortunes and he oversaw a huge increase in the party's number of MPs and elected representatives. Liberal leaders Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg would all rely on him as the party grew to the peak of its success. This volume of memoirs spans his first 30 years in politics (to 2006) and includes the highs and lows of his party during the leaderships of Paddy Ashdown (including his hopes for coalition with Tony Blair) and Charles Kennedy, (including the latter's enforced resignation after revealing publicly his problem with alcohol). There will never be a better inside account of a political party, or contemporary history of the Liberal Democrats. Winning Here is a record that shows how election campaigns are really fought and won and how party leaders change and parties develop. Similarly, there will never be a commentator better placed to tell this story.Trade Review“A valuable record of the sort of political activism and the specific methods of communications peculiar to an era in western democratic politics.”- Michael Steed, Journal of Liberal History

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Book SynopsisA must-have for anyone who has ever played and enjoyed amateur football.

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Book SynopsisA darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor'The best book about multiple sclerosis'THE TIMES'An outstanding feat'SUNDAY TIMESWe all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time ... But sometimes we are unlucky. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist.When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, his fall did something else. It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses, and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined.From Kafka to Barbellion, this is a literary map of the journey from the kingdom of the well to the land of the sick, and forwards into a hopeful future. It's an ode to great writing, to storytelling, to science and to the power of the imagination.Trade ReviewMetamorphosis is the best book I have read about multiple sclerosis, and that is because it is about so much more... It is simply a beautiful piece of writing. * The Times *A pitch-perfect memoir: stylish, erudite, touchingly honest and darkly funny. -- Jacqueline Wilson, author of The Story of Tracy BeakerAn outstanding feat of bravery and brio... A buoyantly written, piercingly perceptive book. * Sunday Times *A beautiful and devastating portrayal of a life-changing diagnosis... It is what the best writing should be: a book that will stay with you for life. -- Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand ShipsThe writing is all elegance and wit. * The Times, *2023's Top 50 Non-Fiction Books* *An account of living with multiple sclerosis that is both deeply literary and painfully honest as it charts his journey into ill health. * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023* *Heartening and unexpectedly gripping... An immensely powerful book... It persuasively builds the case for the ability of stories to offer hope and solace; to help us become ourselves, over and over, even in extremis. * Spectator *Written by an entertaining storyteller and offers a rare insight into a situation that few people will have to face, but that it does us good to contemplate. * Mail on Sunday *While this book deals with distress, physical pain and uncertainty, its wry humour and lightness of touch make it anything but a misery memoir... Superb. * Times Literary Supplement *Douglas-Fairhurst has written a memoir that is not miserable. It's funny and raw... Magical: pages speed by, fuelled by the author's formidable intellect. * Financial Times, *Book of the Week* *

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Book Synopsis'Beautifully written, passionate and moving, this is the book everyone should read about COVID-19' Kate Mosse'Hard to put down' Rachel Clarke'Gripping, humane, eye-opening and seriously tense' Ian DuntThe first book to tell the full story of the COVID-19 pandemic from a doctor on the frontline.ALL ROYALTIES FROM SALES GO TO HEROES, A CHARITY PROTECTING AND SUPPORTING HEALTHCARE WORKERS. On the 8th of February, Dr Dominic Pimenta encountered his first suspected case of coronavirus. Within a week, he began wearing a mask on the tube, and within a month, he moved over to the Intensive Care Unit to help fight the virus.From the initial whispers coming out of China and the collective hesitation to class this as a pandemic to full lockdown and the continued battle to treat whoever came through the doors, Dr Pimenta tells the heroic stories of how the entire system shifted to tackle this outbreak and how, ultimately, the staff managed to save lives.This incredible account captures the shock and surprise, the panic and power of an unprecedented time, and how, at this moment of despair, human generosity and kindness prevailed.'A startlingly personal account ... It can be described as a memoir, a thriller or a horror story, but it is really all at once' Observer'Reads like a thriller – a first-hand account of a group of individuals facing a terrible adversary – but it also moved me sometimes to tears because it communicates the humanity of the patients, as well as the NHS staff. As with all great writing, its honesty shines out' Tim Walker'An excellent book ... Moving and fascinating in equal measure' Xand van TullekenTrade Review'Duty of Care is a tense and gripping account of the unfolding pandemic from a doctor who was there. The bravery and dedication of NHS staff are extraordinary, the looming dangers vividly described. I found it hard to put down' -- Dr Rachel Clarke, Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Life and Your Life in My Hands.'Gripping, humane, eye-opening and seriously tense. Public interest journalism which reads like a thriller novel' -- Ian Dunt.'Truly wonderful ... Brilliant at explaining what it means to be at the heart of things, the growing sense of menace ... Absolutely essential reading ... It deserves to be on every recommended reading list and pressed into the hands of every politician ... Beautifully written, passionate and moving, this is the book everyone should read about COVID-19' -- Kate Mosse.'A startlingly personal account ... It can be described as a memoir, a thriller or a horror story, but it is really all at once' * Observer. *'Reads like a thriller – a first-hand account of a group of individuals facing a terrible adversary – but it also moved me sometimes to tears because it communicates the humanity of the patients, as well as the NHS staff. As with all great writing, its honesty shines out' -- Tim Walker.'An excellent book ... Moving and fascinating in equal measure' -- Xand van Tulleken.Table of Contents0

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Book SynopsisThe true story of three generations of one family which examines the guilt and trauma of being part of Germany's Nazi past.This is a moving and powerful memoir that illuminates the extraordinary power of unprocessed trauma as it passes through generations, and how when it is faced it can be healed.' JULIA SAMUEL, author of Every Family Has a Story, Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass 'A page turner of the highest calibre! Meticulously researched, searingly honest and beautifully written,.' MARINA CANTACUZINO, Author and founder of The Forgiveness Project'An absolutely extraordinary book.' Keith Lowe, Sunday Times bestselling author of Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II-------------In 1987, Angela Findlay walked into a prison and instantly but inexplicably felt at home. For years she had wrestled with a sense of 'badness' within her. But working with prisoners was just the beginning of her search for answers that took her to Nazi Germany and the life of her dead grandfather, who, it emerged, was a decorated general on the Eastern front. In a rare confluence of memoir, psychology and historical detective story, this is Findlay's account of her unflinching quest for the truth about her German family, one that breaks through the silence surrounding many of the Second World War's perpetrators.In My Grandfather's Shadow explores the heritability of unresolved experiences, questions deeply held perceptions of good and bad, and uncovers the lesser-known history of the war's losers, a post-war culture of apology and atonement, and the lingering legacy of shame. Using her own family story to explore an episode in history that continues to appal and fascinate, Findlay reveals that it is possible not only for the scars of trauma to be handed down through generations, but also for them to be healed.Trade ReviewA remarkable cross-pollination of memoir, psychology and history in which the author comes to grips with being the granddaughter of a Nazi general. * i Paper *Brave ... full of insights and good research. -- Caroline Moorehead * Times Literary Supplement *A compelling journey through guilt and shame that asks fundamental and painful questions about the extent of a family member's participation in one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century. -- Derek Niemann, author of A Nazi in the FamilyIn My Grandfather's Shadow is an extraordinary book. Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive; endlessly thought-provoking and challenging. From the nature of wickedness to the phenomenon of epigenetics, it is also an extremely powerful and different way of seeing the vast and terrible tides of history. -- Sinclair McKay, author of Berlin, Dresden, and The Secret Life of Bletchley ParkSeeking to untangle the complexities of her own life, the author goes in search of a WW2 German general - the grandfather she never knew. The outcome is a powerful and at times painfully honest story that will touch readers at many levels. -- Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich and A Village in the Third ReichThis is a moving and powerful memoir that illuminates the extraordinary power of unprocessed trauma as it passes through generations, and how when it is faced it can be healed. -- Julia Samuel, author of Every Family Has a Story, Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass[A] remarkable memoir .... It's a powerful investigation into the individual personal cost that results from wider history, and the ways in which inherited guilt and trauma can leave scars across generations. -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *This is an absolutely extraordinary book. In peeling back the layers of her family history, Angela Findlay reveals a vast, hidden European story that few nations have ever been brave enough to confront. -- Keith Lowe, Sunday Times bestselling author of Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War IIA page turner of the highest calibre! Meticulously researched, searingly honest and beautifully written, this timely book is a salient reminder of how intergenerational relationships connect threads between past and present. The author skillfully excavates her grandfather's life putting the family puzzle together piece by piece to create a forensic and fascinating portrait of the past. Her book gives new meaning to the prescient words of psychoanalyst, Roger Woolger: 'It is the responsibility of the living to heal the dead. Otherwise their unfinished business will continue to play out in our fears, phobias and illnesses. -- Marina Cantacuzino, Author and founder of The Forgiveness ProjectWhat do you do if you are British and German and tormented by a vague sense of guilt which is ruining your life? The answer, in Angela Findlay's case, is you track down your WWII German general grandfather, who waged war on Russia. In a fast-moving story told with great feeling and solid scholarship, Angela Findlay confronts questions of good and evil, generational guilt and reconciliation ... This is a fine book: moving, serious and told with compelling verve. The moral is that honest remembrance of the past helps people live better futures. -- Marcus Ferrar, author of A Foot in Both Camps: a German Past for Better and for WorseIn My Grandfather's Shadow' is a brave, powerful, honest, thoughtful and meticulously researched book. I enjoyed it immensely. It has made me think very hard about intergenerational trauma transfer and explains so much about Germany, and perhaps, in the current context, Russia. -- General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and author of ‘War with Russia’An unflinching exploration of shame and pain passed between generations. This is a powerful and important book which will change the way in which we understand ourselves. -- Emma Craigie, author of Hitler's Last DayIn My Grandfather's Shadow is utterly compelling, elegantly written and extremely brave. The beauty of the book is how absolutely clearly it shows the depth and breadth of the author's research; the care and sensitivity she has brought to bear on the most difficult of subjects. -- Katie Jarvis, * Cotswold Life *In this gripping account of a long personal journey to confront a difficult family history, Findlay explores the effects of trauma, reveals the healing power of art, and affords deep insights into contemporary memorial culture. -- Bill Niven, Professor Emeritus in Contemporary German History at Nottingham Trent University and author of Facing the Nazi PastA brave and profound book which asks difficult questions about how we live with those parts of history which we would rather forget. Angela Findlay is tireless in her search for the truth - and for a reconciliation process which acknowledges that there can be no neat conclusions. Many readers will find this book informative, healing and inspiring. -- ??????Alice Jolly, author of Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile and Dead Babies and Seaside TownsA magnificent achievement. So honest, so thorough and so well written, both Angela's search for truth and this book are about the deepest possible experience of transmitted collective/personal trauma. -- Pamela Steiner, EdD, Senior Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health and author of Collective Trauma and the Armenian GenocideAngela Findlay has written a brave and unflinchingly honest exploration of the complex legacy of her German grandfather's activities as a top-ranking Wehrmacht officer in WW2. Her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the far-reaching impact of transgenerational memory, shame or trauma, and a moving testament to the personal and collective value of reckoning with the past. r -- Rebecca Abrams, author of The Jewish Journey: 4000 Years in 22 Objects and Licoricia of Wincheste

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Book Synopsis'Touching Cloth can be compared to Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt and the writings of the Secret Barrister' Observer'I laughed my way through this... Funny, fascinating, and gorgeously humane' Marina Hyde'Funny and touching in equal measure' Tom HollandA laugh-out-loud memoir of becoming a 21st-century priest, Touching Cloth is also a love letter to the Prayer Book, Liverpool, funerals, cake tins, lager and, above all, to what the Church of England can be at its best. The very word 'reverend' inspires solemnity. To be a priest is to dedicate one's life to quiet prayer and spiritual contemplation. Isn't it?Fergus Butler-Gallie reveals what it's like to become a priest in the twenty-first century. Find out why black really is slimming, how to keep a straight face when someone is inadvertently hot-boxing a funeral, and which royal-themed biscuit tin can best contain a very loud personal alarm that no one knows how to switch off. Spot a sweet old lady trying to pay for a taxi with coinage from fascist Spain? Congratulations, shepherd, she's your problem now.Behind the daily scrapes is an all-too-human love letter to the Church of England, and the amazing variety of people who manage to keep it going, providing a listening ear, company and community at a time when so many people desperately need it, as well as a reflection on what it means to follow a spiritual path amid the chaos of the modern world.Trade ReviewA witty and adept guide to the foibles of the well-intentioned and all too human figures who follow holy orders... Touching Cloth can be compared to Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt and the writings of the Secret Barrister... there is a warmth and wit here that recalls everyone from Wodehouse to that other godly humorist GK Chesterton. -- Alexander Larman * Observer *I may be a non-believer, but I laughed my way through this warm and witty book, which made me admire the irreverent reverend Fergus Butler-Gaillie even more than I already did. It is so engagingly written, and could sit deservingly in the tradition of Monica Dickens's tales of muddling amusingly through in unusual jobs where one might not be considered "a natural" (very high praise!). It's funny, fascinating, and gorgeously humane. -- Marina Hyde, columnist and author of What Just Happened?Funny and touching in equal measure, the diary of a priest that ranges from slapstick to the hauntingly profound. -- Tom Holland, author of DominionTouching Cloth is a delight - a masterclass in the way pleasure, laughter and even God can be found in the most mundane moments of daily life. -- Edward Stourton, author of ConfessionsA warm-hearted and frequently hilarious insight into the daily life of the clergy that won over this inveterate atheist. -- Nick Pettigrew, author of Anti-SocialIrreverent and hilarious... The pitfalls of human physicality form the essence of the book's comedy... What he wants to remind us, I think, is how far from being perfect all who might aspire to being saints are. * The Times *If Butler-Gallie's entertaining book is anything to go by, [clerical life is summed up by] moments of great solemnity very often punctuated by uproarious mirth. * Daily Mail *A rich store of anecdotes, both sacred and profane... Whatever his failure to progress up the hierarchy of the Church, he has an established place as one of its most acute and amusing chroniclers. * Spectator *Searingly honest.. Butler-Gallie is the priest you want in your parish. * i newspaper *Butler-Gallie loves the Church of England, even with its foibles, loves being a priest, and especially loves the ordinary people there. It is a book of humour, but also of deep humanity.... Great clowns give us amusement, but also have a quality of sadness and great depth. This book has that great duality. * Church Times *Butler-Gallie's tales are narrated with a voice and self-deprecatory humour somewhere between Viz and PG Wodehouse. The stories are all gloriously funny, but, like all good clerical effusions, they have a serious point. * Literary Review *The best literature is often about finding laughter in the darkest places. But, set against the backdrop of a year working in the Church of England, this vein of comic writing has even greater resonance, forming a searching examination of the function of faith in modern Britain... it would be hard to find a more personable and humane guide. -- Nicholas Harris * Mail on Sunday *Brilliantly funny, as well as being a rich meditation on ordinary life * TLS *

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Book SynopsisAn Observer, New Statesman, Financial Times, Irish Times and Scotsman 2021 Non-Fiction Highlight 'Searing yet beautiful ... less a hot take that an astute manifesto for what matters most in life, as well as in medicine.' Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic and Your Life in My Hands 'Well written, often entertaining and occasionally deeply moving; an unmissable account of a year we will all try too hard to forget.' The Times 'Inspiring. I can't recommend it too strongly. You will learn a lot from it, and you will find much more that is encouraging.' Allan Massie, Scotsman Intensive Care is about how coronavirus emerged, spread across the world and changed all of our lives forever. But it's not, perhaps, the story you expect. Gavin Francis is a GP who works in both urban and rural communities, splitting his time between Edinburgh and the islands of Orkney. When the pandemic arrived in our society he saw how it affected every walk of life: the anxious teenager, the isolated care home resident, the struggling furloughed worker and homeless ex-prisoner, all united by their vulnerability in the face of a global disaster. And he saw how the true cost of the virus was measured not just in infections, or deaths, or ITU beds, but in the consequences of the measures taken against it. In this deeply personal account of nine months spent caring for a society in crisis, Francis will take you from rural village streets to local clinics and communal city stairways. And in telling this story, he reveals others: of loneliness and hope, illness and recovery, and of what we can achieve when we care for each other.Trade ReviewSuperb ... makes clear that the revelation of this plague has been twofold: our hubris has been shattered, yet there remains a staggering human capacity for bravery, courage and endurance. Francis witnesses it daily in the kingdom of the sick. From it, he takes heart, and urges us to do the same. -- Madeleine Bunting * Guardian *Inspiring. I can't recommend it too strongly. You will learn a lot from it, and you will find much more that is encouraging. -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *One of the most absorbing books - of any type - that I've had the pleasure to read ... Although this is the story of a very dark time, it is full of warmth and decency. It is a book to be savoured. Beautiful things can emerge from desperate times; this book is one of those things. * Irish Times *An unmissable account of a year we will try too hard to forget -- Kate Saunders * The Times *A public service ... compelling * New Statesman *I admire Intensive Care very much - the way it rises to the challenge of writing-to-the-moment, the way it manages compassion without sentimentality, & shows a constant commitment to social justice without piety. Its message is oddly reassuring too - as if we will eventually make sense of this pandemic. -- Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall and SummerwaterA rich seam of insights and empathy runs through [all his books]: Francis' interest in and affection for his fellow human beings seem inexhaustible. Now comes Francis' new book, Intensive Care: A GP, a Community & COVID-19, a searing yet beautiful "eyewitness account of the most intense months I have known in my twenty-year career". ... It is now that Francis' writing comes into its own. With understated eloquence, he depicts the ravages of lockdown for the community he serves. ... Francis deals words with devastating potency. Swiftly, calmly he diagnoses a central cruelty of this pandemic: "That the virus spreads through speech and touch was one of its harshest twists, attacking the most basic elements of our humanity-how we connect, empathise and show love". Ultimately, Intensive Care is less a hot take than an astute manifesto for what matters most in life, as well as in medicine. Reciprocity, selflessness, compassion, and tenderness are what motivate Francis. He ends with the heartfelt hope that, despite everything the pandemic has and will continue to cost us: "the core of medicine-the clinical encounter with its alliance of science, kindness and intensive care-[will] endure. -- Rachel Clarke, author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic and Your Life in My Hands * Lancet *Rich in compassion, patience and humanity. Early in the pandemic Francis read two books with plague themes, Boccaccio's Decameron and Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. His own effort matches them...This is a short book, written in terse sentences with strong and immediate impact. It is intended to raise the human spirit as well as our understanding of health workers, shelf-stackers and the rest of us. * Oldie *Intensive Care is one doctor's beautifully written, easily read account of 2020, the year of Covid-19. It reveals the sheer intensity of what the pandemic has been like for workers in the health and care sectors. The stories it contains constantly remind the reader of the easily-forgotten fact that this whole extraordinary experience has been about people, both as individuals and as members of families, communities and workplaces, and how they survive or are enabled to survive - or not. Rich in detail, conscious of the long historical context of pandemics, Gavin Francis's book does not shy away from pain and despair but it is, ultimately, both humane and hopeful. The passages about the issue of homelessness, in particular, tell how apparently intractable issues can be solved when the will is there and the right people are involved. We may well need to be reminded of this, too, in the coming months and years. A great read and an important record of our times. -- James Robertson, author of the Booker-Longlisted The Testament of Gideon MackIntensive Care is a marvellous book, superb... absolutely the best account I've seen of the realities of living through last year. I loved it. -- Iona Heath, writer and former President of the Royal College of GPsA wise, literate man whose compassion is grounded in realism * Tablet *Insightful ... compelling -- Charlotte Heathcote * Daily Mirror *Compassionate, beautifully written .. will only grow in importance and interest as the years go by -- Jenny Colgan * Spectator Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisA TIMES LITERARY NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 A TIME MAGAZINE MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 'I was so captivated by this book, so utterly drawn in and overwhelmed by the emotional force of it, that it stayed in my bloodstream, it felt, long after I'd finished it.' Nigella Lawson 'Sharp and engrossing' Roxane Gay As the bookish daughter of a travelling salesman, Jami Attenberg was drawn to the road. Her wanderlust led her to drive solo across America, and eventually on travels around the globe, embracing - for better and worse - all the messy life she encountered along the way. As she travelled she was crafting, grafting and honing her work, piecing together a living and career, and wrestling with a deep longing for independence while also searching for community, and eventually, a place she might want to stay in for good. This remarkable memoir reveals the defining moments that pushed her to create a life, and voice, she could claim for herself. Exploring themes of friendship, independence, class and drive, I Came All This Way to Meet You is an inspiring and singular story of living the creative life, and finding one's way home.Trade ReviewI Came All This Way to Meet You is a love story; it shows us a way to love art and our lives and our souls...It's Eat Pray Love for Nick Cave fans -- Emily Flake, New Yorker cartoonist and author of That Was AwkwardA wise and witty glimpse behind the travels and travails of one of our most beloved contemporary novelists ... brims with humour, humility, pathos, and intelligence. I gulped down every page and finished sated, as if I'd spent a long weekend with a dear friend -- Melissa Febos, author of GirlhoodJami Attenberg is undoubtedly a writer's writer and a phenomenal talent ... The book is an embrace. It is a love letter to work and to friendship. I Came All This Way to Meet You is a compelling literary treasure and Attenberg is a real wonder -- Kristen Arnett, author of With TeethThis stunning work explores home not solely as geographic place, but really a mobile metaphor for the relationships we consistently run to and away from. Jami Attenberg cements her place as one of our greatest, most agile writers -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and Long DivisionI Came All This Way to Meet You gives a generous and captivating glimpse into Jami Attenberg's work, intellect, and heart. A must not just for fans of her fiction but for anyone who wonders: 'why write, and how? -- Jean Hannah Edelstein, author of This Really Isn't About YouHonest, generous and propulsive. I loved it -- Francesca Segal, author of Mother ShipIlluminating... made me feel like I'd found a kindred spirit * Red *Whipsmart ... Prepare to be inspired * Evening Standard *Comic and very human ... a brilliant reminder that being unsure, leading a messy life and, above all, trusting yourself to get where you need to go, can apply to us all * Stylist *Not your average writer's memoir, this one takes in wanderlust, independence and the creative life * Guardian 2022 Books Highlights *Marvellous... I laughed out loud -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Deeply personal accounts of failure and sadness and how she found her voice as a writer ... Moving * Jewish Chronicle *I have always enjoyed [Jami Attenberg's] deceptively simple writing. Actually it's undeceptively simply. She has a voice that doesn't pretend to be cleverer or weaker than you. -- Sophie Heawood, author of The Hungover Games

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Book Synopsis'A really lovely book for dog lovers' - Jilly Cooper'Charming, funny, heartwarming and full of dogs - what more could you want?' - Adam Kay, bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt'A joy from start to finish. I loved it!' - Stacey Halls, bestselling author of The Familiars'An absolutely glorious romp of a book' - Ruth Hogan, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost ThingsKate MacDougall always knew her heart wasn't really in her job at Sotheby's. All around her, friends were finding their dream jobs and whooshing up career ladders. After yet another breakage, this time of two precious porcelain pigeons, she had enough, and walked out of her snoozy, back office existence into the unknown world of the then-nascent gig economy. London's No. 1 Dog-Walking Agency is the story of her next 9 years and the dogs (and people) she meets along the way. There's Winston, the Labrador, who isn't allowed to get muddy, even after his owners split up and then enlist Kate in their custody battle. There's the chic trio of Islington couples whose immaculately arranged dog walking schedule is thrown off when one of them gets off with the dog walker Kate has employed. There's Kate's long-suffering, dog-agnostic boyfriend Finlay, and her mother, who is always on the alert for wedding bells. Amongst all this, there's Kate herself: trying to work out what she wants from life, and when and how to get there.Trade ReviewA really lovely book for dog lovers * Jilly Cooper *'Charming, funny, heartwarming and full of dogs - what more could you want?' * Adam Kay *This is a glorious romp of book starring a cornucopia of canines and their hapless humans. It tickles the funnybone and tugs at the heartstrings. Hugely entertaining. * Ruth Hogan, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things *A joy from start to finish. I loved it! * Stacey Halls, bestselling author of The Familiars *It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me long for a dog! Incredibly moving, very funny and wonderfully wise, this is a brilliant debut memoir and a beacon of hope when we need it most. I shall be recommending it to everyone I know, dog-loving or otherwise. * Annie Lyons *Kate gives you a peek into London lives, where nothing is quite as it seems. I raced through like a dog in its favourite park. * Ericka Waller, author of Dog Days *"Top on my list of dog lover's must-reads. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency positively fizzes with wit - and it's all the funnier because it's true. You literally couldn't make it up!" * Graeme Hall (The Dogfather) *

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Book SynopsisAfter nearly a decade of dutifully climbing the corporate ladder to become a partner in a headhunting firm, Lucy Leonelli was feeling restless in a life that was seemingly mapped out for her, and she could not shake the sense that she was missing out on something… something out there.Realising that the answer was right in front of her – in a country so full of clandestine communities and colourful, eccentric characters – Lucy made the daring decision to hit the pause button on her career and hang up her suit in favour of a year exploring twenty-six wildly different subcultures.Over the next twelve months, she lived with battle re-enactors, circus performers, hill baggers, Morris dancers, naturists, trainspotters, yogis, zeitgeist political activists and more, experiencing first-hand their social rituals and customs in the hope that, somewhere along the way, she might just uncover the most authentic version of herself. A Year in the Life charts Lucy’s adventure as she sang naked karaoke with naturists, jumped from one very high place to another with parkour daredevils, partied in tight latex with self-proclaimed vampires and fought the undead in an epic LARP battle. It tells of the importance of community in an increasingly isolating society; of the unquenchable human thirst for a sense of belonging; of how misguided our own prejudices can be; and of how when we open the door to others, we might just learn something about ourselves.

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Book SynopsisField Notes is the record of a territory in full colour: a book of words and artworks that capture a year spent on foot in the Lincolnshire landscape.It is about topography and time. Chalk and flint and marsh. The coming and going of the sea, Neolithic farmers and the razzle-dazzle of weary coastal towns. It is as much about the ghost of a mammoth as it is the scream of a jet fighter, heading east. Each image is a still from a film – a film that is under constant production inside Maxim Peter Griffin’s skull.Griffin’s art is about taking somewhere and looking at it over and over so that with each looking it becomes strange and new. As well as being a testament to the isolated beauty of Lincolnshire itself, Field Notes is an extraordinary account of what it is like to be present in, to fully inhabit, a place.

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Book Synopsis‘Bboy’ means ‘boy’ in a very particular form of internet cat-speak. You can pronounce it ‘boy’, ‘buh-boy’ or ‘bee-boy’, whatever makes your heart happiest. It’s not always easy to live your life with kindness, but Ellen Murray and her cat Bilbo are doing their best to spread messages of positivity to their followers. As an LGBT+ and disability activist, Ellen’s goal has always been to make love, care and safety a reality for all – but fighting for your own rights or standing as an ally to others can be daunting, intimidating and confusing work.How to Be a Good Bboy is an accessible guide to understanding what human rights work is all about: how to get involved, navigate the inevitable pitfalls, overcome imposter syndrome and own your vulnerability and power.It is about Bilbo, and about Ellen. About her work, and about how Bilbo’s online presence is not just an accessory to that work but a way to channel the greater goals of her activism to a wider audience. It is about dignity, respect and justice, and ultimately how to be a very good bboy.

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Book SynopsisFor once, these men are the objects; I am the subject. Me, me, me.Rosemary Mac Cabe was always a serial monogamist – never happier than when she was in a relationship or, at the very least, on the way to being in one. But in her desperate search for ‘the one’ – from first love to first lust, through a series of disappointments and the searing sting of heartbreak – she learned that finding love might mean losing herself along the way.This Is Not About You is a life story in a series of love stories. About Henry, with the big nose and the lovely mum, with whom sex was like having a verruca frozen off in the doctor’s surgery: ‘uncomfortable, but I had entered into this willingly’. About Dan, with the goatee. About Luke, who gave her a split condom. About Frank, who was married…But mostly, it’s about Rosemary, figuring out just how much she was willing to sacrifice for her happy ending.

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Book SynopsisWhen Sky and her older sister Avril were taken into care, the social workers knew this was a case like no other. Raised by troubled parents who hoarded compulsively, creating horrific conditions no child should live in, the two girls arrived at foster carer Louise's home, neglected, malnourished, and indoctrinated. Louise had to draw on all of her experience as one of Britain's leading foster carers to rehabilitate and change the course of their lives.But with constant attempts to thwart her work, Louise ends up under siege in her own home. Will she succeed or is their fate sealed forever?

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of the Thrown Away Children series comes another heartbreaking story of life in foster care.Parents Angelina and Ben exist in enviable luxury: not just wealth, success and a gorgeous home, but a loving relationship and beautiful twin babies to complete the perfect family.But having it all means that you have the most to lose. And when cracks begin to appear things fall apart at a shocking pace; and it's twins Max and Mia who suffer the most.Money isn't enough to paper over the problems in this extraordinary and heartbreaking story. It is a foster-caring experience like no other, and one which tests Louise's emotional strength to the core.

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Book Synopsis'Tony is the real deal.' Andy McNabThe full, explosive, boots-on-the-ground story of the Falklands War, from a soldier at the heart of the action, published for the 40th anniversary of the conflict. Tony Hoare always knew he wanted to be in the SAS.Both his grandfather and father had been soldiers, and so Tony signed up for the Cadets at 13, then the Infantry at 17 and enlisted into the Royal Green Jackets before passing arduous SAS selection in 1978.Less than four years later, Tony and his team were sent to a collection of islands just off the coast of Argentina called the Falklands, where tensions were rising and war was on the horizon.No amount of training could prepare Tony for what happened over the course of the next twelve weeks, as the Falkland Islands became a battleground between British and Argentinian forces. As helicopters crashed and ships sank, Tony, at the centre of the action, battled across treacherous terrain and against a fearsome enemy, doing whatever it took to retake the islands.From one of the only soldiers who was on the frontline throughout the entire conflict, this is a thrilling account of what really happened in the Falklands, an explosive story of land, sea and air battles from a trooper who saw it all.Trade Review'There is no higher accolade than a fellow solider wanting you to be beside them in the fight. Tony is the real deal and a personal hero of mine. All soldiers would have wanted him alongside them when things got brutal. This is a no holdout account of the Falklands War from a man who was in the fight' -- Andy McNab

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Book Synopsis*A Sunday Times Bestseller***INCLUDES AN EXTRA Q&A CHAPTER EXCLUSIVE TO THE PAPERBACK**For five generations, the Pemberton family have farmed at Birks Farm in the picturesque town of Lytham on Lancashire's Fylde Coast, working at the heart of the area since the 1830s and supplying dairy produce to the local community ever since. In 2016, Tom Pemberton uploaded a one-minute video to YouTube about how to use the farm shop's new raw milk vending machine. He thought a handful of people would watch it. It turns out many more did. And so he began uploading regular videos, every Tuesday, Friday and the occasional Sunday to show what he gets up to on the farm. Things don't always go to plan, especially when you're the farmer's son, but every day's a learning day and Tom approaches work as he does life in general: stay positive and don't take yourself too seriously. Make Hay While the Sun Shines takes us behind the farm gate and follows a year on the farm: from calving to maintaining machinery, from mucking out to planning and building a brand-new cow shed. Tom gives us a unique insight into everyday life on a busy dairy farm with all its highs, lows and hard graft. Full of heart, amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters like Tom's dad, Andy - aka the Ginger Warrior - this is Tom's story of determination, adventure and how to keep a smile on your face even when you're knee-deep in cow poo.

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Book SynopsisHow hard can it be? Not a bad question for anyone to ask when faced with a challenging situation whether that is at work, in the home, or in a chosen pursuit. This book describes that positive, self-confident approach by Nick Wharton during his many and varied adventures. The book takes the reader on a journey through a wide collection of stories and insights into his own escapades and how he has faced them over the past 40 years starting with learning to climb at boarding school - climbing the buildings in the middle of the night. We get an insight into his time in the army - holding back the Russians in Germany; patrolling the streets of Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles; training Mozambique forces in Zimbabwe; and, back home in the UK. Living in the Lake District, Wharton retrained as an Environmental Health Officer which started his unlikely choice of career in health and safety. We get an insight into his perspective of risk and how he has used his climbing to help get the H&S message across to colleagues and clients with great effect. He gives us an insight into his own, distinctive approach to climbing His insight into the world of hazards and risk management helps us to understand, what has been described by many as one of the most bold approaches to climbing in recent years. The book is a fabulous collection of stories and anecdotes with contributions from many others - colleagues, friends, climbing partners and well-known characters from the climbing world. Illustrated throughout with a range of full-colour photos. The book will appeal to climbers and other outdoor activity enthusiasts but also to anyone with a sense of adventure and fun. It is introduced with a foreword by Leo Houlding - one of the best-known adventurers of our time.

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Book SynopsisThe extrovert of interior design and the definition of ''more is more'', maximalism is an exuberant celebration of pattern, colour and texture that deliberately clash. Its roots lie in 1930s Hollywood Regency style, Rococo and Neoclassicism, as well as Greek, Egyptian and Asian styles.With a historical overview of the decor, and illustrated with examples of notable interiors and key elements of lighting, furniture, colour palette, texture and textile, the book offers practical advice on how to recreate the look in your own home.

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Book SynopsisVULTURE'S BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR 2023A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023When Shane McCrae was eighteen months old, he was removed from his parents and taken to suburban Texas. His mother was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, believing they were doing what was best for him. His grandmother loved Shane but hated people who looked like him. His grandfather policed any perceived signs of Blackness his grandson showed. In their house, Blackness would always be the worst thing about him.Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is a revelatory account of what it can mean to be Black in America, written with virtuosity and heart by one of the finest poets writing today. This memoir offers acute insight into the larger story of a people stolen from their homes, dominated by white supremacy and lied to about their own history. And it illuminates how we all might be made whole again, through a tireless search for the truth and the joyful pursuit of what we love.Trade ReviewImaginative, lyrical . . . Memory itself is as much the central theme as the kidnapping and its aftermath -- DECLAN RYAN * * Daily Telegraph * *Striking . . . [Full] of many powerfully visceral ruminations on memory * * Observer * *A moving, slippery and imagistic prose memoir by one of my favourite lyric poets writing today -- RAYMOND ANTROBUSExtraordinary . . . a recreation of childhood trauma - and the trauma of never being free as a child to name it as trauma in the feverish pseudo-normality of this incredible and shocking situation. It's about race, class, imagination - and skateboarding - and is packed with passion and energy -- ROWAN WILLIAMS * * New Statesman * *Shane McCrae's powerful, indelible poet's voice has now extended to the memoir, and how fortunate are we that the very things that distinguish his verse - truth-telling, sharp observation, more than a sense of the moment, profundity worn lightly - grace his harrowing and enlightening tale about race and what makes an American family and why. An essential story for our times -- HILTON ALSPulling the Chariot of the Sun is the kind of story that pulls you right in with its voice, the kind of book that sways you with heart-wrenching honesty and beautiful music. There is something magnetic to this storytelling, which gives us an incantation of memory that is as moving as it is spellbinding. For what tears up the family in this book is what tears up this country still, prevents it from finding itself. McCrae's voice is vulnerable and direct and precise, the voice of a poet who teaches us again what musical prose can do. This is such a compelling and necessary book -- ILYA KAMINSKYShane McCrae's extraordinary memoir is a kinaesthetic feat in the art of remembering, a complex layering of, and a laying bare of, the trauma of a stolen Black identity. Each meticulous, mellifluous, sentence charts a journey with multiple detours, dead ends and unexpected destinations. It is befitting that catharsis comes through language itself, the language of poetry. Ambitious and profound, this book will leave an indelible imprint on the mind of the reader -- PATIENCE AGBABIA precise articulation of memory, its making and unmaking, McCrae's book is a vivid, churning and compulsive account of one man's personal reckoning with race, prejudice and the ideologies that haunt modern America. Written with a sharp and constantly-searching language, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is as acute in its thinking as it is brave in its emotional charge -- SEÁN HEWITTA fantastic book, if harrowing. A story only reality could dream up -- JARRED MCGINNISA book by a man who was kidnapped as a child, and raised by his kidnappers, and no further attempt to describe what's in these pages can prepare the reader for the hardness of the story nor the dazzling light of McCrae's prose -- JOHN DARNIELLE

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