Search results for ""ATLANTIC BOOKS""

While on a duck-hunting holiday sailing in the Frisian Isles, Carruthers and his friend Davies become suspicious of German naval activity off the North Sea Coast. The pair decide to investigate, and are soon embroiled in a world of suspense and intrigue, and the pair set about foiling nothing less than a plot to invade England.Initially published in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands proved a prescient vision of the Anglo-German conflict that was to culminate in the First World War. This thrilling adventure is now regarded as the first - and one of the best - spy novels ever written, inspiring later masters of the genre from John Buchan to John le Carre.

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'A wise, witty and insightful guide to clear thinking amid a deluge of percentages and probabilities.' Ian StewartLike it or not, our lives are dominated by mathematics. Our daily diet of news regales us with statistical forecasts, opinion polls, risk assessments, inflation figures, weather and climate predictions and all sorts of political decisions and advice backed up by supposedly accurate numbers. Most of us do not even pause and question such figures even to ask what they really mean and whether they raise more questions than they answer. In this simple guide for anyone numbed by numbers, William Hartston reveals with clarity and humour why the figures being flung at us may not tell the whole story. Along the way he explains commonly misused mathematical terms, solves everyday mathematical problems and shows how to steer a safe path through the minefield of mathematics that surrounds us.

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Jonny Garrett is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker. He's best known as the founder of Youtube's Craft Beer Channel, which has over 160,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He has written four books and his most recent one, A Year in Beer (CAMRA Books, 2021), won the Fortnum & Mason Drinks Book of the Year, British Guild of Food Writers Drinks Book of the Year and British Guild of Beer Writers Book of the Year. He was also voted British Beer Writer of the Year in 2019 and 2022.

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'Fantastic book written by a true LFC legend.' Jurgen Klopp'George Sephton is part of the brickwork of Liverpool Football Club and was witness to so many iconic moments. He has lived through a huge chunk of our history, from when Liverpool were in the Second Division, when he used to come to Anfield with his father, all the way to being crowned World Club and Premier League champions. It's been a rollercoaster ride, and George has been there for all the ups and downs - but mainly the ups.' Sir Kenny Dalglish'The voice of George Sephton has been heard at Anfield for so long that you could be forgiven for imagining him poised with a wind-up gramophone and a 78-rpm record of Gerry with his ukulele and a single Pacemaker, on a comb and tissue paper, piping Alan A'Court and Alf Arrowsmith onto the field.' Elvis CostelloGeorge Sephton's relationship with Liverpool Football Club began in 1971 when he wrote to the club secretary applying to be the stadium announcer. His first match also marked the debut of Kevin Keegan. For the past fifty years, Sephton has been at Anfield for all but a handful of home fixtures, as well as travelling with the team to major finals. From the highs of winning numerous league titles and European Cups, to the lows of Heysel and Hillsborough, Sephton has been with Liverpool through it all. From encounters with great managers and legendary players - from Bill Shankly to Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes to Jurgen Klopp, he tells his unique and entertaining story of the greatest club in the world.

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'I loved to the strongest' CONN IGGULDEN, bestselling author of Protector'An excellent new series by the consistently brilliant Robert Fabbri' Sunday SportLet the battles begin... 'I foresee great struggles at my funeral games.'Babylon, 323 BC: Alexander the Great is dead, leaving behind him the largest, and most fearsome, empire the world has ever seen. As his final breaths fade in a room of seven bodyguards, Alexander refuses to name a successor. But without a natural heir, who will take the reins?As the news of the king's sudden and unexpected death ripples across the land, leaving all in disbelief, the ruthless battle for the throne begins. What follows is a devious, tangled web of scheming and plotting, with alliances quickly made and easily broken, each rival with their own agenda.But who will emerge victorious: the half-chosen; the one-eyed; the wildcat; the general; the bastard; the regent? In the end, only one man, or indeed woman, will be left standing...

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Longlisted for the Orwell Prize, 2019 ____________The Times Round-up of the Best Non-fiction Paperbacks, 2019The Times Best Current Affairs and Big Ideas Book of the Year, 2018For many in modern Britain, careers are low-paid and high-risk, a series of short-term jobs with no security and little future. In this essential exposé, James Bloodworth goes undercover to investigate how working life has become a waking nightmare. From the Orwellian reach of an Amazon warehouse to the trials of a care worker, Hired is a clear-eyed analysis of a divided nation and a riveting dispatch from the very frontline of low-wage Britain.'An extraordinary and unsettling journey into the way modern Britons work. It is George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London for the gig-economy age' MATTHEW D'ANCONA, author of Post-Truth

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Dr Milton Osborne is a writer and consultant on Asian issues and the author of many books, including Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness, River Road to China, The Mekong: Turbulent past, uncertain future and Exploring Southeast Asia: A traveller's guide to the region. He is a regular visitor to Southeast Asia and for the past decade has been a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney.

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When 21-year-old Oli sets sail from Australia she embarks on a trip that will open her eyes to life's possibilities. Some years later, fluent in the language of the ocean, she is the only female crew member on-board a yacht delivery to New Zealand. There, in the darkness below deck, she learns something new: at sea, no one can hear you scream.Below Deck is about the moments that haunt us, that fan out like ripples through the deep. It is a novel about the vagaries of consent, about who has the space to speak and who is believed.

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One of the world's first tree-top scientists, Meg Lowman is both a pioneer in her field - she invented one of the first treetop walkways - and a tireless advocate for the planet. In a voice as infectious in its enthusiasm as in its practical optimism, The Arbornaut chronicles her irresistible story. From climbing solo hundreds of feet into Australia's rainforests to measuring tree growth in the northeastern United States, from searching the redwoods of the Pacific coast for new life to studying leaf-eaters in Scotland's Highlands, from a bioblitz in Malaysia to conservation planning in India to collaborating with priests in Ethiopia's last forests, Lowman launches us into the life and work of a scientist and ecologist. She also offers hope, specific plans and recommendations for action; despite devastation across the world, we can still make an immediate and lasting impact against climate change.

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**Shortlisted for 'best novel' in the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards!**A regular weekday morning veers drastically off-course for a group of strangers whose paths cross in a London café - their lives never to be the same again when an apparently crazed gunman holds them hostage. But there is more to the situation than first meets the eye and as the captives grapple with their own inner demons, the line between right and wrong starts to blur. Will the secrets they keep stop them from escaping with their lives? Another tense, multi-dimensional drama from the writer of the Richard & Judy bestseller AFTER THE FALL.'tautly plotted, gripping and emotional' - Clare Mackintosh

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'There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.' Hannah Gadsby, NanetteMulti-awardwinning Hannah Gadsby transformed comedy with her show Nanette, even as she declared that she was quitting stand-up. Now, she takes us through the defining moments in her life that led to the creation of Nanette and her powerful decision to tell the truth - no matter the cost.Gadsby's unique stand-up special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her blistering honesty and her ability to create both tension and laughter in a single moment. But while her worldwide fame might have looked like an overnight sensation, her path from open mic to the global stage was hard-fought and anything but linear.Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby's growth as a queer person from Tasmania - where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 - to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, to her struggle with adult diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette - the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.Equal parts harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby's tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time.

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'There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.' Hannah Gadsby, NanetteMulti-awardwinning Hannah Gadsby transformed comedy with her show Nanette, even as she declared that she was quitting stand-up. Now, she takes us through the defining moments in her life that led to the creation of Nanette and her powerful decision to tell the truth - no matter the cost.Gadsby's unique stand-up special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her blistering honesty and her ability to create both tension and laughter in a single moment. But while her worldwide fame might have looked like an overnight sensation, her path from open mic to the global stage was hard-fought and anything but linear.Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby's growth as a queer person from Tasmania - where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 - to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, to her struggle with adult diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette - the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.Equal parts harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby's tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time.

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Winner of the Hearst Big Book Awards, 2019 - Women's Health's Book of the Year_____________Shocking, brilliant, important. A fine addition to the feminist canon. - Emma Jane UnsworthFor the first time I feel like I PROPERLY understand my vagina! I wish I had read this 23 years ago! - Scarlett Curtis_____________From earliest childhood, girls are misled about their bodies, encouraged to describe their genitalia with cute and silly names rather than anatomically correct terms. In our schools and in our culture, we are coy about women while putting straight men's sexuality front and centre. Girls grow up feeling ashamed about their periods, about the appearance of their vulvas, about their own desires. They grow up without a full and honest sex education, and this lack of knowledge has serious consequences: the number of women attending cervical screening appointments in the UK is at a 20-year low while labiaplasty is the fastest growing type of plastic surgery in the world. Vagina provides girls and women with information they need about their own bodies - about the vagina, the hymen, the clitoris, the orgasm; about conditions like endometriosis and vulvodynia. It confronts taboos, such as abortion, miscarriage, infertility and masturbation. It tackles vital social issues like period poverty, female genital mutilation and the rights of transgender women. It is honest and moving as Lynn Enright shares her personal stories but this is about more than one woman - this is a book that will provoke thousands of conversations. We urgently need to talk about women's sexual and reproductive health, about our experiences of sex and pregnancy and pain and pleasure. Vagina: A Re-Education will help us do just that.

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With a biographer's eye for detail and a novelist's comprehension of the creative process, A. N. Wilson paints a masterful portrait of Dante Alighieri and unlocks one of the seminal works of literature for a new generation of readers.In Dante in Love, A. N. Wilson presents a glittering study of an artist and his world, arguing that without an understanding of medieval Florence, it is impossible to comprehend the meaning of Dante's great poem. He explains how the Italian States were at that time locked into violent feuds, mirrored in the ferocious competition between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. He explores Dante's preoccupations with classical mythology, numerology and the great Christian philosophers which inform every line of the Comedy. Dante in Love also lays bare the enigma of the man who never wrote about the mother of his children, yet immortalized the mysterious Beatrice, whom he barely knew.

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A killer is on the loose. Three children have been abducted. The bodies of two returned to their mothers along with a desperately cruel note:You Got What You Deserved.Police Superintendent Adam Stubo is in charge of the investigation, and is convinced there's a crucial detail he's overlooking. In a desperate bid to get some answers, he recruits legal researcher Johanne Vik, a woman with an extensive understanding of criminal history.With a chance that the third child is still alive the clock is ticking. Can the pair solve the case in time to save her?The first instalment in the sensationally gripping Vik/Stubo series.

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As twenty-year veteran Joe Rizzo edges closer to retirement, things only seem to get more difficult: having promised his wife he'd quit smoking, he's working the most baffling case of his career, with a new partner to boot.Robert Lauria was practically a hermit, and was dead ten days before anyone found him. Fired from his job as a shoe salesman weeks ago, he rarely left his apartment and had no visitors except his cousin, who says she hardly knew him. So who strangled him late one night as he made tea in the kitchen in his pajamas? And could there be a connection to the headline-grabbing murder of a Broadway producer a day earlier?Rizzo and his new partner, Priscilla Jackson, carefully comb through the life of this forgotten man, even though their superiors have already put the case on the back burner. Tasked with navigating the twin labyrinths of the truth and NYPD politics, they must find the killer and bring him to justice.And what they discover along the way will surprise everyone.

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Smart, tough Los Angeles FBI agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo breathe sighs of relief after violent diamond smuggler Karl Steinbach is finally arrested in a complex sting. Vowing vengeance on the agents who brought him down, Steinbach is imprisoned - only to be offered a release with total immunity in a dodgy deal with Homeland Security.As Jack and Oscar's team of agents start to die, it becomes clear that Steinbach's is no idle threat. But when the pair investigate their slain comrade's lives, they discover that what looked like retribution is actually tied to a web of deceit that stretches to the highest echelons of the FBI. Navigating car chases, shootouts, and even venomous reptiles, Jack and Oscar furiously pursue clues scattered throughout the underbelly of Los Angeles, in a desperate attempt to find the killer - before he finds them.With a storyline crackling with action, a dazzling cast of thugs, traitors, killers and creeps, and a cinematic portrait of a Los Angeles clogged with corruption and greed, Robert Ward's turbulent new thriller is clever, contemporary and cool as ice.

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In this remarkable and groundbreaking book, Kenan Malik explores the history of moral thought as it has developed over three millennia, from Homer's Greece to Mao's China, from ancient India to modern America. It tells the stories of the great philosophers, and breathes life into their ideas, while also challenging many of our most cherished moral beliefs. Engaging and provocative, The Quest for a Moral Compass confronts some of humanity's deepest questions. Where do values come from? Is God necessary for moral guidance? Are there absolute moral truths? It also brings morality down to earth, showing how, throughout history, social needs and political desires have shaped moral thinking. It is a history of the world told through the history of moral thought, and a history of moral thought that casts new light on global history. At a time of great social turbulence and moral uncertainty, there will be few histories more important than this.

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Across the globe, millions of computer screens flicker with the artfully coded world of T'Rain - an addictive internet role-playing game of fantasy and adventure. But backstreet hackers in China have just unleashed a contagious virus called Reamde, and as it rampages through the gaming world spreading from player to player - holding hard drives hostage in the process - the computer of one powerful and dangerous man is infected, causing the carefully mediated violence of the on-line world to spill over into reality. A fast-talking, internet-addicted mafia accountant is brutally silenced by his Russian employers, and Zula - a talented young T'Rain computer programmer - is abducted and bundled on to a private jet. As she is flown across the skies in the company of the terrified boyfriend she broke up with hours before, and a brilliant Hungarian hacker who may be her only hope, she finds herself sucked into a whirl of Chinese Secret Service agents and gun-toting American Survivalists; the Russian criminal underground and an al-Qaeda cell led by a charismatic Welshman; each a strand of a connected world that devastatingly converges in T'Rain. An inimitable and compelling thriller that careers from British Columbia to South-West China via Russia and the fantasy world of T'Rain, Reamde is an irresistible epic from the unique imagination of one of today's most individual writers.

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***J. M. G. Le Clézio is the Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Fiction***On the isle of Mauritius at the turn of the century the young Alexis L'Etang enjoys an idyllic existence with his parents and beloved sister - sampling the pleasures of privilege, exploring the onstellations and tropical flora, and dreaming of treasure buried long ago by the Unknown Corsair. But with his father's death, Alexis must leave his childhood paradise and enter the harsh world of privation and shame.Years later, Alexis has become obsessed with the idea of finding the Corsair's treasure; and through it, the lost magic and opulence of his youth. He abandons job and family, setting off on a quest that will take him from the remote tropical islands to the hell of the First World War, and from a love affair with the mysterious Ouma to a momentous confrontation with the search that has consumed his life.By turns harsh and lyrical, pointed and nostalgic, The Prospector is a 'parable of the human condition' (Le Monde) by one of the most significant literary figures in Europe today.

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Taro is a boy from a coastal village in rural Japan, fated to become a fisherman like his father. But in just one night, Taro's world is turned upside down - and his destiny is changed forever.Skilled in the art of silent and deadly combat, ninjas are the agents of powerful nobles who rule sixteenth-century Japan. So why did a group of these highly trained assassins creep into a peasant's hut and kill Taro's father? And why did one ninja rescue Taro from their clutches, saving his life at enormous cost?Now on the run with this mysterious saviour and his best friend Hiro, Taro is determined to learn the way of the ninja to avenge his father's death. But if they are to complete their perilous journey, Taro must first evade the wrath of the warring Lords, decipher an ancient curse, resist forbidden love - and come to terms with the blood-soaked secrets of a life lived in moonlight.

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It all starts with the death of Martijn van Vliet's wife. His grief-stricken young daughter, Lea, cuts herself off from the world, right up until the day that she hears a snatch of Bach being played on a violin by a busker. Transfixed by the sweet melody, she emerges from her mourning, vowing to learn the instrument. Lea's all-consuming passion is matched by talent, and she becomes one of the finest players in the country - but as her fame blossoms, her relationship with her father only withers. Desperate to hold on to Lea, Martijn is driven to commit an act that threatens to destroy both him and his daughter.

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Craig Raine's dazzlingly original second novel, The Divine Comedy is a gripping meditation on sex and death and God and the myriad ways in which the human body plays dirty tricks on us. The Divine Comedy is a fugue and a black comedy. In delicious and bawdy detail, an unnamed narrator offers snapshots into the lives and loves of an astonishing cast of philanderers and fuckups while along the way, the evidence amasses for a comic, cosmic conspiracy. Craig Raine's second novel, The Divine Comedy, is a voyeuristic meditation on sex and insecurity, God and the nature of the human body - its capacity for pleasure and pain, its desires, disappointments, and its many mortifying betrayals.

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Theodore Blanchaille is searching for the missing millions of the Boer leader Paul Kruger, and his lost city of gold. As a child he had heard tales of Kruger from a wayward priest; what follows is an astonishing journey that takes Blanchaille through a landscape peopled with spies, visionaries, terrorists, traitors, patriots and exiled presidents. From huge transit camps on the veld to a notorious prison block, from a township in the bloody aftermath of 'pacification' to a secret travellers' rest for fleeing pilgrims, and from the streets and cellars of Soho to paradise at last on a Swiss mountainside, Kruger's Alp is a fantastical political satire of extraordinary invention.

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Today Vincent Cable is best known as 'the undisputed heavyweight champion of the credit crunch in Parliament' (Robert Peston), revered for his prescience and authority on the world economic crisis. But his journey to become Britain's most respected politician has been long, circuitous and sometimes very painful. In this memoir he tells that story for the first time.Free Radical is a candid book, written with wit and great insight. Vince Cable's life story is a long way from that of a conventional career politician. His book is as compelling as it is timely.

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Waterstones' Books of the YearNick McDonell's electrifying novel tells the story of a fictional drug called Twelve and its devastating effects on the beautiful rich and desperate poor of New York City.From page one, this novel pulsates towards its apocalyptic climax. Twelve is cool, cruel and utterly compulsive. Twelve has been adapted for film by Hollywood director Joel Schumacher starring Chace Crawford,Emma Roberts, and 50 Cent.Praise for Twelve'As fast as speed, as relentless as acid' -- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times'The hype is all true' --Sunday Telegraph'Bret Easton Ellis territory...an extraordinary assured debut' --Harper & Queen'McDonell is an authentic talent and, long after the storms of hype have died away, his novel will endure as a snapshot of his generation' --Observer'Consistently brilliant... One of the most exciting new writers around' --Independent on Sunday'A brilliant satirical debut' --Time Out'A compulsive elegy to wasted, privileged youth, lives up to the hype... lean, elegant and bleakly witty' --Elle

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''Cozzens is a master storyteller'' The Times''Extremely well researched'' Times Literary SupplementFrom the devastating invasion by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century to the relentless pressure from white settlers 150 years later, A Brutal Reckoning tells the story of encroachment on the vast Native American territory in the Deep South, which gave rise to the Creek War, the bloodiest in American Indian history, and propelled Andrew Jackson into national prominence, as he led the US Army in a ruthless campaign.It was a war that involved not only white Americans and Native Americans but also the British and the Spanish, and ultimately led to the Trail of Tears, in which the government forcibly removed the entire Creek people, as well as the neighbouring Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee nations, from their homelands, leaving the way open for the conquest of the West. No other single Indian conflict had such a signif

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***A Strong Words 2023 Book of the Year***'A highly enjoyable and serendipitous read!' - Rob Eastaway, bestselling co-author of Headscratchers: The New Scientist Puzzle BookDid you know:-Only around 100 people have ever lived beyond a million hours (that's about 114 years)-Around 7% of everyone who has ever lived is currently alive-The '12 days of Christmas' song, when sung in full, results in 364 gifts being given - one for every day... except ChristmasBroken down into 12 chapters that correspond roughly to months of the year - from going 'back to school' with arithmetic and times tables through prime numbers and all the way to the 12 Days of Chris-maths, this book features a collection of 365 fascinating numerical 'nuggets', accompanied by clear, bite-size explanations of the mathematics that underpin them.

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***NOW A MAJOR FILM, STARRING JONATHAN MAJORS AND GLEN POWELL***'This is aerial drama at its best. Fast, powerful, and moving.' Erik LarsonDevotion tells the gripping story of the US Navy's most famous aviator duo - Tom Hudner, a white New Englander, and Jesse Brown, a black sharecropper's son from Mississippi. Against all odds, Jesse beat back racism to become the Navy's first black aviator. Against all expectations, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighter planes for his country. While much of America remained divided by segregation, the two became wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32 and went on to fight side-by-side in the Korean War. Adam Makos follows Tom and Jesse's dramatic journey to the war's climatic battle at the Chosin Reservoir, where they fought to save an entire division of trapped Marines. It was here that one of them was faced with an unthinkable choice - and discovered how far they would go to save a friend.

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''Fascinating'' Spectator''Entertaining'' Sunday Times''Enthralling'' Guardian''Beautiful, funny and moving'' Daily Mail''Compelling and moving'' Observer''Replete with vivid - often hilarious, often shocking - anecdotes'' Financial TimesWhile for generations Polly Toynbee''s ancestors have been committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, they could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the prosperous life of academia or journalism enjoyed by their own forebears. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality?Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family - which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell, and features ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop - Toynbee explores the myth of mobility, t

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''An enthralling page-turner'' DILLY COURT''A heart-warming WW2 love story'' ROSIE GOODWIN''A great new series from the queen of East End sagas'' ELAINE EVEREST*1941. Whilst London is battered by air raids, Felicity Fliss Carmichael has troubles of her own. Still reeling from catching her fiancé cheating, she flees to her childhood home at St. Winifred''s Rectory, reuniting with her sister Prue and Hester Katz, a Jewish doctor sheltering there.Though heartbroken, Fliss finds purpose again as a journalist. On assignment, she crosses paths with Detective Inspector Timothy Wallace, who shares her passion for truth and justice - though not her political beliefs. Despite their differences, an instant spark ignites between them.But their love faces twists and turns ahead. While Fliss stumbles upon a crime and bravely intervenes, Tim''s investigation into black market racketeering puts him in mortal danger...

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''An enlightening, enjoyable and frequently very funny journey into what makes Yorkshire stand out from the crowd ... a fascinating insight into our wonderful region and the people that make it what it is.'' The Yorkshire PostWritten from the perspective of an exiled Yorkshireman this bestselling, award-winning author returns to his native county to discover and reveal its soul.We all know the tropes - Geoffrey Boycott incarnate, ferret-leggers and folk singers gambolling about Ilkley Moor without appropriate headgear - but why is Yorkshire God''s Own County? Exiled Yorkshireman Rick Broadbent sets out to find out whether Yorkshireness is something that can be summed up and whether it even matters in a shrinking world. Along the way he meets rock stars, ramblers and rhubarb growers as he searches for answers and a decent cup of tea. Now Then is a biographical mosaic of a place that has been victimised and ste

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A delightful and witty treasure trove of utterly useless information by the author of The Things That Nobody Knows.Most encyclopaedias are boring. They are so packed with worthy but dull facts that a great deal of weird and wonderful material is squeezed out. The Encyclopaedia of Everything Else takes the opposite approach and leaves out all the dreary stuff you can find elsewhere. The result is the most fascinating, astonishing, varied and utterly useless collection of information ever assembled and organized between two covers. From aardvark tooth bracelets to the genus of tropical weevils known as Zyzzyva, via Mark Twain's views about cabbages, this is a quarter of a million words of sublime pointlessness.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDSet in modern-day America and France, Renaissance Italy and Boxer Rebellion China, these stories embrace whole lifetimes, much in the manner of Alice Munro and William Trevor. Joan Silber skilfully and subtly ties one story to the next, as a minor element in one becomes a major element in the next, until the last is tied convincingly to the first. Intense in subject yet restrained in tone, they are about longings - often held for years - and the ways in which sex and religion can become parallel forms of dedication and comfort. From a wannabe dancer in contemporary New York City to missionaries in China, Ideas of Heaven showcases Joan Silber's extraordinary deftness as she illuminates love, faith and sex with great originality and profundity.

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''This may be the greatest tale of the ancient world. Hugely enjoyable'' CONN IGGULDEN''Excellent . . . scintillating'' THE TIMESForging Kingdoms is the fifth book in a huge, brutal and bloodthirsty series about the fight to regain Alexander the Great''s empire after his untimely death. From the shattered empire, five kingdoms are emerging.Seleukos, triumphant in the capture of Babylon, now faces the challenge of holding onto his hard-won prize. One-eyed Antigonos and his son are newly reconciled and both hungry for revenge.But Antigonos has foes of his own. Driven by vengeance, widowed Artonis sides with Ptolemy, planning to thwart the one-eyed brute. The key to their success is Herakles, the sixteen-year-old illegitimate son of Alexander. To see him crowned, they will not only need an army but also to eliminate Kassandros, a powerful rival with his own designs on the throne of Macedon. Meanwhile in the nort

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*WINNER OF THE 2023 SPORTS BOOK AWARDS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR**FOREWORD BY BEN STOKES*Hallo - I'm Mark Wood. As an England and Durham cricketer who was born, raised and refined in Ashington, Northumberland, my life has been quite unique. Over the course of my career so far, I've won an Ashes and a World Cup in an international career that at the time of writing is going on seven years and counting. Being a fast bowler like myself is up there with the toughest of all sporting pursuits, like being Tyson Fury's punchbag or working behind the bar during the darts at Ally Pally.Being a cricketer? There's nothing like it. And doing it for England? Well, I'm lucky to call it a profession. There's been a lot of hard work along the way. Plenty of sacrifices and pain to accompany the good times that make them all worthwhile.I've been everywhere, from Barbados to Brisbane, Chester-le-Street to Chennai, waiting rooms to operating tables. I've played in some of the most exotic locations in the world and eaten margherita pizzas in every single one of them. To be honest, it's amazing I've waited this long to bring out my own self-help book.

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'A compelling history of the dark arts of statecraft... Fascinating' Jonathan Rugman'Rich in anecdote and detail.' The TimesToday's world is in flux. Competition between the great powers is back on the agenda and governments around the world are turning to secret statecraft and the hidden hand to navigate these uncertain waters. From poisonings to electoral interference, subversion to cyber sabotage, states increasingly operate in the shadows, while social media has created new avenues for disinformation on a mass scale.This is covert action: perhaps the most sensitive - and controversial - of all state activity. However, for all its supposed secrecy, it has become surprisingly prominent - and it is something that has the power to affect all of us. In an enthralling and urgent narrative packed with real-world examples, Rory Cormac reveals how such activity is shaping the world and argues that understanding why and how states wield these dark arts has never been more important.

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'A cyclone of a novel' Guardian'An absolute marvel' Max Porter, bestselling author of Lanny'Dancing and dodging, surprising and poignant' Lisa McInerney, bestselling author of The Rules of RevelationTony Cooney, a middle-aged radio talk-show host, takes a road trip across Ireland with his producer, Louise (Lou) Fitzpatrick, as part of a publicity stunt organized by a local car dealership. Their aim is to give away to one lucky winner the Mazda 2 that they're driving, the catch being that it must go to one of the many emigrants who have recently returned home to escape a wave of escalating terror attacks in London. But as they navigate dual-carriageways and Holiday Inns, giving airtime and narrative to the great cacophony of voices calling into the show, the car competition transforms into a surreal quest - Tony to find his first love, Lou to find answers to impossible questions, all of us to discover whether our lives ever add up to more than the stories we tell ourselves and each other.

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'Modern marriage and its compromises ... a terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' Daily Mail Over twenty years of marriage to Max, Prue has remained a busy, contented mother and stepmother. Now, Prue's stepdaughter, Violet, has returned with her new husband from New York and, suddenly, Prue is precipitated into a secret life. As she moves between a sleepy village in Hampshire and buzzing London, Prue finds herself crossing the boundary between innocence and knowledge, exploring the line between the gluttony and surrender of desire and facing the stark realities that result. Because while marriage can be a battleground, extraordinary bargains and accommodations are often struck between people who love one another.

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John Gilligan is one of the most notorious and hated criminal figures in Irish history. His name is indelibly etched in the national psyche a quarter of a century after he crossed the line to organise the execution of the fearless, high-profile journalist Veronica Guerin. Gilligan's motive for the assassination was, in the words of the prosecution at a subsequent murder trial, 'the necessity of having to protect an evil empire'. At the time Gilligan was one of the most powerful and feared godfathers in the country who controlled a colossal drugs empire and the underworld's most dangerous mob.Gilligan tells the story of a young man's rise through the ranks of gangland following his journey from petty thief to public enemy number one. He was part of the generation of young criminals - like the General, the Cahills, the Hutches - who ushered in the phenomenon of organised crime in Ireland and became household names in the process.This close-up look at a criminal mastermind contains new details including a graphic account of the planning of the Guerin murder, drawn from a sealed statement which was never used, and the prison time and criminal activity which have occupied Gilligan since, up to his recent arrest in Spain on drug trafficking charges.

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Who became Britain's first Prime Minister on 3 April 1721?When was Karl Marx born?Where and when was the first battle of the Wars of the Roses?When did Big Ben first bong?When did the first British woman cast her vote? (Clue: It wasn't 1918.)Find the answers to these questions and many more in this landmark political history.From the first meeting of an elected English parliament on 20 January 1265 to the tabling of the Bill of Rights on 13 February 1689; from the Peterloo massacre of 16 August 1819 to Britain voting to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, there is a growing thirst for knowledge about the history of our constitutional settlement, our party system and how our parliamentary democracy has developed.Writing as an observer of political history, but also as someone with an opinion, acclaimed political broadcaster Iain Dale charts the main events of the last few hundred years, with one event per page, per day.'The indefatigable Iain Dale always cuts to the nub of politics.' Adam Boulton

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Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of The Infiltrators and the New York Times bestseller Blitzed, as well as the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world's first hypertext novel), Mitte and Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City) and the historical crime novel Die Gleichung des Lebens. He lives in Berlin.

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''Phenomenal... Utterly absorbing'' Sunday Times, ''Book of the Week''''[A] fabulous romp of a book''***** Mail on Sunday A Financial Times ''Book to Read in 2023''In 1835, Lord Brougham founded Cannes, introducing bathing and the manicured lawn to the wilds of the Mediterranean coast. Today, much of that shore has become a concrete mass from which escape is an exclusive dream. In the intervening years, the stretch of seaboard from the red mountains of the Esterel to the Italian border hosted a cultural phenomenon well in excess of its tiny size. A mere handful of towns and resorts created by foreign visitors - notably English, Russian and American - attracted the talented, rich and famous as well as those who wanted to be. For nearly two centuries of creativity, luxury, excess, scandal, war and corruption, the dark and sparkling world of the Riviera was a temptation for everybody who was anybod

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'A funny and touching insight into music, autism and motherhood' Dawn French'A truthful book that dives headfirst into the realities of motherhood that will make you laugh out loud and touch your heart in equal measure' Izzy Judd________________________________Your family doesn't fit the mould. So what?Lucy had it all: an exciting career, a rock-star husband, and pelvic floor muscles that could crack a walnut. And then, she had kids...Since giving birth to her second child, Lucy's life is totally unrecognisable: the romance in her marriage is officially dead and so is the career it took her years to build.Instead of playing the cello behind superstars at packed-out arenas, Lucy now spends most days mopping up broccoli vomit whilst listening to her four-year-old recite facts about the gallbladder. Something needs to change.With a little help from her friends, Lucy comes up with a plan to get her life on track, claw back her career and help her extraordinary son to find his place in an ordinary world.

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Written in an accessible and humorous style, this book teaches you to know what's going on in your mind and how to get your feelings under control. It'll help you adapt and feel better about your place in the world.Psychologist Gwendoline Smith uses her broad scientific knowledge and experience to explain in clear and simple language what's happening when you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious and confused.

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