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Bill Bryson

In this fully revised and updated edition of the best-selling popular science book of the 21st century, Bill Bryson makes complex subjects clear and compelling for everyone with an interest in the world around them. 
 
NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED. 
 
'Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.' Economist 
 
'Truly impressive...It's hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.' Guardian 
 
Bill Bryson can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 is the result of his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization – how we got from being nothing at all to what we are today. Now fully updated to reflect the many scientific discoveries in the last twenty years since this book was first published, it explains among much else: 
<ul><li>why Pluto is no longer a planet</li><li>how the number of moons in the solar system has more than doubled in 20 years</li><li>how scientists used advances in genetics to discover previously unknown species of early humans</li><li>why we still don't know what most of the universe is made of</li><li>how the little Higgs boson transformed physics</li></ul>This journey through time and space will inform a new generation of readers, young and old, as well as those who read this book on first publication with a new perspective based on what we know now. 
 
Written in his inimitable style, Bryson makes complex subjects fascinating and accessible to everyone with an interest in the world around them. 
 
A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 reveals the world in a whole new way. 
 
Praise for A Short History of Nearly Everything: 
 
‘I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written.’ Sunday Telegraph 
 
‘Bill Bryson has an unmatched gift for explaining the most difficult subjects in the clearest possible way.’ Mail on Sunday 
 
'A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide' The Times 
 
‘Hugely readable and never obfuscating.’ Sunday Times 
 
‘A genuinely useful and readable book... A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again’ Daily Express 
 
‘The very book I have been looking for most of my life... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes.’ Daily Mail 
 
‘Destined to become a modern classic of science writing’ The New York Times

A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0

John Lewis-Stempel

"How to describe the ecstatic song of larks? How the writers and poets have tried..." 
 
Skylarks are the heralds of our countryside. Their music is the quintessential sound of spring. The spirit of English pastoralism, they inspire poets, composers and farmers alike. In the trenches of World War I they were a reminder of the chattering meadows of home. 
 
Perhaps you were up with the lark, or as happy as one. History has seen us poeticise and musicise the bird, but also capture and eat them. We watch as they climb the sky, delight in their joyful singing, and yet we harm them too. 
 
 The Soaring life of the Lark explores the music and poetry; the breath-taking heights and struggle to survive of one of Britain's most iconic songbirds. 
 
PRAISE FOR JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL 
 
'Britain's finest living nature writer' - The Times 
 
'Lewis-Stempel is a fourth-generation farmer gifted with an extraordinary ability to write prose that soars and sings' - Daily Mail

The Soaring Life of the Lark

AS FEATURED ON 'BBC RADIO 4 'GOOD READS'. 
Woodlands Awards 2019: Woodland Books of the Year 
 
'The oak is the wooden tie between heaven and earth. It is the lynch pin of the British landscape.' 
 
The oak is our most beloved and most common tree. It has roots that stretch back to all the old European cultures but Britain has more ancient oaks than all the other European countries put together. More than half the ancient oaks in the world are in Britain. 
 
Many of our ancestors - the Angles, the Saxons, the Norse - came to the British Isles in longships made of oak. For centuries the oak touched every part of a Briton's life - from cradle to coffin It was oak that made the 'wooden walls' of Nelson's navy, and the navy that allowed Britain to rule the world. Even in the digital Apple age, the real oak has resonance - the word speaks of fortitude, antiquity, pastoralism. 
 
The Glorious Life of the Oak explores our long relationship with this iconic tree; it considers the life-cycle of the oak, the flora and fauna that depend on the oak, the oak as medicine, food and drink, where Britain's mightiest oaks can be found, and it tells of oak stories from folklore, myth and legend.

The Glorious Life of the Oak

Siddharth Kara

'A horrific tale of the slave trade, destined to become a classic' New York Times 
 
From the New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red, discover the incredible true story and page-turning account of the 18th century slave ship, often known as the Zong yet actually named the Zorg - ironically meaning 'care' - that sparked the human rights campaign to end the slave trade. 
 
Perfect for fans of David Grann’s The Wager and The Wide, Wide Sea by Hampton Sides. 
‘Remarkable, riveting’, Adam Hochschild, historian and bestselling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Bury the Chains 
 
In 1781, the Zorg set off from The Netherlands to West Africa and from there onto the Caribbean. The fateful voyage would alter the course of history forever. 
 
By the time its journey ends, the Zorg would become the first undeniable argument against slavery. 
 
When a series of unpredictable weather events and navigational errors led to the Zorg sailing off course and running low on supplies, the ship's captain threw more than a hundred slaves overboard in order to save the crew and the most valuable slaves. The ship's owners then claimed their loss on insurance, a first for slaves who had not been killed due to insurrection or died of natural causes. 
 
The insurers refused to pay due to the higher than usual mortality rate of the slaves on board, leading to a trial which initially found in their favour, in which Chief Justice Mansfield compared the slaves to horses. Thanks to the outrage of one man present in court that day, a retrial was held. For the first time, concepts such as human rights and morality entered the discourse on slavery in a courtroom case that boiled down to a simple yet profound question: Were the Africans on board people or cargo? 
 
In his riveting new book, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Siddharth Kara brings history to life, showcasing how the Zorg’s fateful voyage exposed the harsh reality of the slave trade. 
 
The case catapulted the emerging anti-slavery movement to one of the most consequential moral campaigns that changed the course of history. 
 
The Zorg is the astonishing yet little-known true story of one of the most consequential ships that ever crossed the Atlantic.

The Zorg

A Tale of Greed, Murder and the Abolition of Slavery

Terry Pratchett

A beautiful clothbound pocket edition of Sir Terry Pratchett’s essay on why we all deserve a life worth living and a death worth dying for. 
 
With a new Afterword by Peter Serafinowicz 
and an updated Introduction by Rob Wilkins 
 
'Eloquent and essential' Guardian 
 
'A poignant, thought-provoking, sometimes funny, always brilliant read' 5-star reader review 
 
 
‘Most men don’t fear death. They fear those things – the knife, the shipwreck, the illness, the bomb – which precede, by microseconds if you’re lucky, and many years if you’re not, the moment of death.’ 
 
When Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his fifties he was angry - not with death but with the disease that would take him there, and with the suffering disease can cause when we are not allowed to put an end to it. 
 
In this essay, broadcast to millions as the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, he argues for our right to choose – our right to a good life, and a good death too.

Shaking Hands With Death

Sonoko Machida

Your next read for fans of ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT and MY GLORY - the bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers' Award and author of THE CONVENIENCE STORE BY THE SEA: a deeply moving story of vulnerability and finding your voice as a woman fleeing hard times befriends a young boy who cannot speak. 
 
Readers adore 52-HERTZ WHALES: 
 
'If you have to work tomorrow, don't read this, since your eyes will be swollen up the next day. I read this in a single sitting and it saved me from the loneliness I had in my heart' Reader review ***** 
 
'A wonderful, beautiful story of what is both ugly and precious about humanity, filled with what we need most' Reader review ***** 
 
HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD 
THE BESTSELLING WINNER OF THE JAPAN BOOKSELLERS' AWARD 
MADE INTO AN AWARD-NOMINATED FILM 
 
Emotional rescue is a two-way street 
 
Kiko has run away from her Tokyo life to a rural village by the sea and rumours are flying among the locals about this mysterious newcomer. When she comes across an abandoned boy who is unable to speak, an unusual bond develops as she shares a tale of the lonely whale whose voice is too high-pitched for others to hear. As she unpicks the boy's story, and he unravels hers, a gripping and powerful history of strength, survival and finding your voice begins to unfold.

The Woman, the Boy and the Whale

A Discworld series tie-in book exploring the city of Ankh-Morpork with full colour illustrations and fold out map. Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. 
 
Essential for any fan of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, this stunning and beautifully illustrated gift book - complete with pull out map - details everything you could possibly want and need to know about Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's principal city. Maps, directories, walking tours, accommodation, food and drink - everything is included. No traveller destined for Ankh-Morpork should leave home without it! 
 
What readers are saying... 
'Marvellous - had me giggling like a loon for hours' -- ***** Reader review 
'A work of art' -- ***** Reader review 
'I started laughing 2 seconds after opening this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Sumptuous' -- ***** Reader review 
'Amazing' -- ***** Reader review 
'A must have for all Discworld fans' -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************************** 
Greetings, adventurer! We lay before you this most comprehensive gazetteer encompassing all the streets of Ankh-Morpork, as well as information on its principal businesses, hotels, taverns, inns, and places of entertainment and refreshment - all enhanced by the all-new and compleat map of our great city state. 
 
We ask that when you pore over this glorious work, you spare some thought for the humble cartographers and surveyors who made journeys into the darker corners of our metropolis - no less dangerous than the wilds of Skund or Bhangbhangduc. To some the only memorial is the map you now possess. Others, in their quest for knowledge, paid the highest price that scholarship demands, which is to say, a day off in lieu. 
 
And so we dedicate this map and these accompanying words to the officers, councillors and members of the Merchants' Guild and to all who will find in its pages paths yet to tread and places yet to explore within the magnificent wonder that is the city of Ankh-Morpork. 
 
A gift like no other, this stunning package expertly conjures up the sights, sounds, people and places of Ankh-Morpork in ways fans have previously only been able to imagine.

The Compleat Ankh-Morpork

the essential guide to the principal city of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Ankh-Morpork

Bernard Pearson

A Discworld tie-in book. Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. 
 
This ultimate guide to the Year of the Prawn is a veritable cornucopia of advice, direction and wisdom - a must have not only for all inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork and the Sto Plains, but also anyone wanting to immerse themselves in the whimsical and wonderful ways of Sir Terry Pratchett's incredible Discworld. 
 
What fans are saying: 
'Brilliant, typical Pratchett' - ***** Reader review 
'Insightful and funny as always from Terry Pratchett' - ***** Reader review 
'Amazing' - ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************** 
 
This is the definitive Almanak to the Common Year of the Prawn: a Compendium to all Knowledge. Not only a sure means of ensuring fertility of crops & livestock it is also a boon companion in affairs of the heart and health and full to the brim with information as will render this Publication a staunch companion to Townsman & Tiller of Soil alike. 
 
Including: 
*homemade remedies for common ailments 
*recipes 
*horoscopes 
*scientific discoveries 
*a calendar 
*strange tales 
*valuable facts about the cabbage 
 
Beautifully illustrated, this is an artistically presented package guaranteed to tickle the funny bone of all Pratchett fans.

The Discworld Almanak

The Year of The Prawn

Laura Barnett

From Sunday Times Number 1 bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, The Versions of Us, a beautiful novel about six lifelong friends and one unforgettable year, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. 
 
‘A perfect, can’t-put-down summer read!’ Red 
 
‘A beautifully written story about second chances…couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’ Heat 
 
'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful… a fantastic read’ 5-star reader review 
____ 
 
Six friends who were inseparable at university find themselves reunited at an engagement party twenty years later... 
 
Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay-at-home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business. 
 
When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. 
 
Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose? 
 
Births, Deaths And Marriages is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. 
 
It’s about births, deaths, marriages... and everything in between. 
 
Praise for Laura Barnett and Births Deaths and Marriages: 
 
‘My first read by Laura Barnett and won’t be my last…richly written and so moving’ Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things 
 
‘A must-read’ Closer 
 
‘I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors’ Georgina Moore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Garnett Girls 
 
'A compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family' Kate Sawyer, Costa Prize shortlisted author of The Stranding 
 
‘Barnett has that rare talent, like Curtis Sittenfeld or Kate Atkinson, of building up the mundane aspects of everyday life until they acquire meaning’ The Times 
 
Readers love Births, Deaths & Marriages: 
 
‘Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day...I couldn't put it down.’ 
 
'A rich, emotional read. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself rooting for each of them.' 
 
'An emotional, heartfelt book about the joys and sorrows of life. It is about love in all its forms, the friendships that shape us, and the quiet moments that define who we become.' 
 
'Perfect blend of humour, poignancy, and authenticity' 
 
‘Wow! Just wow! A book for anyone who has loved, for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one, for anyone who has contemplated or been married, for every parent, indeed, for anyone who has lived.’ 
 
‘A hugely enjoyable novel which celebrates the durability of friendships that have weathered the storm of growing up.’ 
 
'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful — a fantastic, life-affirming read.' 
 
'Characters so real you feel they could be your friends.' 
 
'A celebration of life’s milestones and the friendships that endure them.' 
 
'I couldn’t bear to leave that world behind — I wanted more!'

Births, Deaths and Marriages

'Britain's finest living nature writer' THE TIMES 
 
'Lewis-Stempel's greatest gift remains his prose, with all its vividness and energy' THE DAILY MAIL 
 
'The hottest nature writer around' THE SPECTATOR 
 
At night, the normal rules of Nature do not apply. In the night-wood I have met a badger coming the other way, tipped my cap, said hello. The animals do not expect us humans to be abroad in the dark, which is their time, when the world still belongs to them. 
 
That was in winter. The screaming of a tawny owl echoed off the bare trees. For all of our street-lamp civilization, you can still hear the call of the wild. If, if, you go out after the decline of the day... 
 
As the human world settles down each evening, nocturnal animals prepare to take back the countryside. Taking readers on four walks through the four seasons, acclaimed nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel reveals a world bursting with life and normally hidden from view. Out beyond the cities, it is still possible to see the night sky full of stars, or witness a moonbow, an arch of white light in the heavens. 
 
It is time for us to leave our lairs and go tramping. To join our fellow creatures of the night.

Nightwalking

Four Journeys into Britain After Dark

Is there any bird more mysterious than the cuckoo? 
 
It is invariably heard, and not seen. And if seen, it is mistaken for a sharp-winged hawk. The female cuckoo - by a trick that borders on alchemy - is able to disguise its egg as another's. In Greek myth the god Zeus assumed the form of a cuckoo to seduce Hera. 
 
But we forgive the cuckoo its con-artistry, because it is the true herald of spring. It is the bird that uplifts our wintered hearts, with that first two-note 'cuk-koo' unmistakable as it sounds across the country. 
 
In The Curious Life of the Cuckoo, John Lewis-Stempel explains one of nature's greatest enigmas in vivid, lyrical prose, and celebrates this iconic bird.

The Curious Life of the Cuckoo

Kate Atkinson

It's the summer of 1951 and everyone is looking to put the dark days of the war behind them. The government’s solution: The Festival of Britain, a celebration of the country’s creativity, grit and ingenuity. 
 
For foreign correspondent-turned-war reporter, Harry Flynn, it might offer the chance of redemption after a bad war in the Far East. But when he returns to London, the peace proves no less easy to negotiate. Having failed to resume his journalistic career, he reluctantly joins an oddball team of misfits, ne'er do wells and downright chancers helping to ready the Festival of Britain for launch. 
 
Flynn’s attempts at some semblance of a romantic life also founder when one of his dates goes missing and he is deemed the last person to see her alive. Could he have been in some way responsible for her disappearance? 
 
Little does he realise that the answer to some of his mounting problems may lie in the hands of a precocious straight-talking thirteen-year-old called Veronica and a rather scruffy terrier who goes by the name of Mrs Betty… 
 
Brilliantly plotted, witty and compelling, Our Noble Selves once again affirms Kate Atkinson’s place as one of the greatest chroniclers of our times.

Our Noble Selves

Hallie Rubenhold

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
The new page-turning, feminist retelling of the historical true-crime story of infamous wife-murderer Dr Crippen, brought to justice by an extraordinary group of women. 
 
FROM THE AWARD-WINNING, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR OF TRUE CRIME SENSATION THE FIVE: THE WOMEN KILLED BY JACK THE RIPPER, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION. 
___________ 
 
'Thoughtful, humane, gripping. The kind of popular history you devour in one sitting' Sunday Times, Dominic Sandbrook 
 
'A finely layered portrait of a hypocritical Edwardian society’ Financial Times 
 
'An exceptional achievement. I was gripped from the very first page' The Secret Barrister, Sunday Times bestselling author 
 
‘I couldn't put it down' Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry 
 
'Under her pen, history comes alive' Professor Dame Sue Black 
___________ 
 
No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story … 
 
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation. 
 
They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen. 
 
Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported? 
 
In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women. 
 
Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is meticulously researched and multi-layered, offering the reader an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era. 
___________ 
 
PRAISE FOR STORY OF A MURDER: 
 
'Gripping and eye-opening' I-news, Book to Watch Out For 
 
'Reads like a great thriller. I inhaled it' Bella Mackie, bestselling author of How to Kill Your Family 
 
'A unique combination of sleuthing, storytelling and compassion' Lucy Worsley, bestselling author and historian 
 
'Fascinating. It's about time Belle became the hero of her own story' Val McDermid, bestselling author of the Karen Pirie series 
 
'As compelling as any crime drama' S J Parris, bestselling author of the Giordano Bruno series 
 
'I had my hand over my wide-open mouth…I can’t recommend it more: I will be thinking about it for a very long time. Rachel Joyce, bestselling author of The Homemade God 
 
'Takes us beyond the world of Dr Crippen into the lives impacted by him and the society in which he moved. Terrific' Ian Rankin, bestselling author of the Rebus series 
 
'Compelling to the very last page' Denise Mina, award-winning author of Reese’s Book Club pick, Conviction 
 
'Does for the Crippen Murder case what THE FIVE did for the victims of Jack the Ripper. Forensic research and insistent sympathetic writing. I loved it' PROFESSOR DAVID WILSON, BBC 1, The Crime 
Squad 
 
'Breathtaking. Rubenhold has not only produced a thrilling reassessment of a notorious crime, but an impressive portrait of an age' Spectator

Story of a Murder

The Wives, the Mistress and Dr Crippen

The Crime of the Century retold by the Women History Forgot

Kate Riley

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2025 
 
‘It will become an underground classic’ New York Times 
‘A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait… Standout’ Wall Street Journal 
‘An irresistibly smart and funny novel’ Jenny Offill, author of Weather, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction 
 
Ruth is raised in a snow globe of Christian communism, a world without private property, television, or tolerance for idle questions. Every morning she braids her hair and wears the same costume, sings the same breakfast song in a family room identical to every other family room in the community; every one of these moments is meant to be a prayer, but to Ruth they remain puzzles. 
 
Her life is seen in glimpses through childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as she tries to manage her own perilous curiosity in a community built on holy mystery. Is she happy? Might this in fact be happiness? Ruth immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs.

Ruth

Mark Z Danielewski

*Special hardback edition with foil cover* 
The first-ever UK hardback publication of the cult horror classic, featuring a special embossed ‘maze’ case design and full-colour text. Get ready to (re)discover the terrifying, thrilling, and mind-expanding immersive classic horror that redefines the boundaries of a novel . . . 
 
 
'Phenomenal . . . thrillingly alive, sublimely creepy, distressingly scary, breathtakingly intelligent.' Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho 
'A genuinely scary chiller, a satire on the business of criticism and a meditation on the way we read.' OBSERVER 
'I've never read anything like it' ***** Reader review 
 
 
A young couple - Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson and his partner Karen Green - move into a small house on Ash Tree Lane. 
 
It soon becomes clear that something is terribly wrong - their new home is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside . . . 
 
Neither Will nor Karen are prepared to face the consequences of this impossibility until the day their two small children wander off, and their voices eerily begin to tell another story - of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams and create nightmares. 
 
What happened next is loosely recorded on videotapes and in interviews, and impelled an eccentric old man to compile - on loose sheets of paper, stained napkins, crammed notebooks - a definitive account of what took place at Ash Tree Lane that seems to unveil a thrilling and terrifying history. 
 
Because these scraps prove to be far more than the deranged ramblings of a reclusive old man . . . 
 
Immensely imaginative. Impossible to put down. Impossible to forget. 
House of Leaves is thrilling, terrifying and unlike anything you have read before. 
 
 
Praise for House of Leaves: 
'Genuinely clever and learned, often funny, brilliantly constructed and surprisingly touching . . . a debut of scintillating intelligence and scope.' Mail on Sunday 
‘An astonishing book . . . buy it, read it, be scared. – SFX 
‘Intricate, erudite and deeply frightening.’ – Wall Street Journal 
‘A fascinatingly insane triumph.’ – Independent on Sunday 
‘Demonically brilliant’ - Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn 
'Strange, highly addictive and slowly creepy' ***** Reader review 
‘Genuinely chilling… I can't recommend this book highly enough.’ ***** Reader review 
'The creativity and originality is astonishing' ***** Reader review

House Of Leaves

Mariam Rahmani

A most anticipated book of the season for Oprah Daily, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Book Riot, WBUR and LGBTQ Reads. 
 
'Sexy, sly, daring' Justin Torres, National Book Award-winning author of Blackouts 
 
'The smoothest, smartest book I’ve read in quite some time' Paul Beatty, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sellout 
 
'Loving, cutting, mournful, and hilarious' Bryan Washington award-winning author of Family Meal and Memorial 
 
 
‘My career had gone nowhere. My love life was non-existent. And as for s*x – here I was, home alone on a Saturday night with a chick flick playing on my laptop because I didn’t own a TV. You can draw your own conclusions.’ 
 
Our protagonist always believed herself to be the smartest person in the room. But a couple of years on from earning a fancy PhD, she’s still broke, single and stuck in a job going nowhere. One option remains: marry rich. 
 
Her summer becomes a whirlwind of dating: martinis with a lazy heir, board games with a butch producer and a Venmo request from a ‘socialist’ trust-fund babe. However, when some unexpected and tragic news takes her – and her project – to Tehran she is forced to ask and answer some overdue questions about family, connection and, terrifyingly, her own purpose in life and in love. 
 
A riveting spin on a classic romantic comedy, Liquid delivers a modern tale of romance, loss and belonging in a gorgeous high-wire voice that explodes off the page with wit, verve and originality.

Liquid

Turi King

The Secrets of our DNA is a myth-busting book that provides a window into the world of modern genetics and reveals the extraordinary true stories and mysteries solved using the power of DNA. 
 
AS SEEN ON THE CHANNEL 4 DOCUMENTARY HITLER’S DNA: BLUEPRINT OF A DICTATOR 
 
DNA has become the key to unlocking crime and immigration cases, it is essential to our food safety, to the protection of threatened wildlife, and to resolving questions of history and archaeology, ancestry and even, for some, identity. 
 
Now the UK’s preeminent authority on DNA and genetic research, Turi King takes us through fascinating true stories - from mistaken dinosaur DNA to the O. J. Simpson trial, from Dolly the sheep to Angelina Jolie’s BRCA1 gene – to reveal the fascinating ways in which DNA has solved mysteries and shaped our world today. 
 
King shows us how we are all interconnected and why we must all benefit from this exciting and rapidly evolving science. She also reminds us that, while our DNA can yield information about genetic predisposition to disease and other conditions, it need not be our destiny. And, perhaps most importantly, she shows us why should all be a part of the discussion as to how new genetic discoveries are utilised for the benefit of all life on earth. 
 
Fascinating, compassionate, and entirely captivating The Secrets of Our DNA is the must-read book about how genetics has changed the world.

The Secrets of our DNA

How Genetics has Changed the World

Sue Black

Pioneering forensic scientist, anatomist and anthropologist, Professor Dame Sue Black takes the reader into our criminal courts’ witness box from the perspective of an expert witness, the forensic scientist, explaining exactly what that job is, what it demands, how the role evolved, and its likely future. 
 
The expert witness sits at the crux of the relationship between law enforcement, science and the legal system. When that relationship works well, it makes for compelling fiction, television and movies. When it works less well, it makes for compelling and explosive news headlines. 
 
In Dissection of an Expert Witness, Sue Black puts the relationship between these different institutions, and how they affect and are affected by the expert witness, under the microscope. Using shocking landmark cases that expose both the strengths and weaknesses of the interconnection between disciplines - she probes: In which cases did we get it right? In which did we get it wrong? And if we had done it differently, might the pendulum of justice have swung another way? 
 
Incisive and compelling, following the impact of advances in technology to changes in funding and the effect of our gladiatorial system, Sue Black tracks the journey of this most intriguing of sciences through to its inevitable conclusion - and the toll it may take not only on experts but ultimately how justice plays out.

Dissection of an Expert Witness

Is this the cutting edge of forensic science?

A Discworld series tie-in picture book, a companion to Snuff (part of the City Watch novels). Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. 
 
'A gloriously old-fashioned and funny story... A brilliant choice for reading aloud.' Evening Standard 
 
The World of Poo tells of a boy’s adventure in his first visit to the mighty Discworld metropolis of Ankh-Morpork. As featured in Terry Pratchett’s Snuff, this is a delightfully illustrated adventure for readers of all ages. Guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of young and old alike. 
 
From Snuff: 'The title was The World of Poo... As [Vimes] turned page after page, it dawned on him that whoever had written this book, they certainly knew what would make kids like Young Sam laugh until they were nearly sick. The bit about sailing down the river almost made him smile...' 
 
'Terry Pratchett is not so much a writer as a one-man publishing phenomenon who has single-handedly re-shaped the world of fantasy fiction' SFX's Outstanding Contribution Award

The World of Poo

Michiko Aoyama

By the million-copy bestselling author of WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY, a Times bestseller and Time magazine Top 100 title 
 
From the three-times nominated author for the Japan Booksellers award: Volume Two of the Marble Cafe series, in which customers, staff, artists and manager connect over 12 powerful episodes to create vivid experiences of unexpected happy encounters and anonymous kindness. 
 
Loving praise from international readers for MATCHA ON MONDAY: 
‘These words resonate in my heart’ ***** 
‘I felt the depth of each relationship and burst into tears a few times’ ***** 
‘A miraculous story that shows the importance of giving things perspective’ ***** 
‘It would be a great idea to read this together with HOT CHOCOLATE ON THURSDAY’***** 
‘The same taste and feeling as drinking a cup of matcha’ *****

Matcha on Monday

The perfect gift for nature lovers - The Book of the Owl is a beautifully illustrated small format hardback exploring the legend and history of the owl. A true celebration of this magnificent creature - its natural powers and its mythical glory. Fans of Stephen Moss and Fiona Stafford will not be disappointed. 
 
'In this short, beautiful little book, the farmer and nature writer introduces us to the wisdom of owls.. every question you might ask ... is answered with economy and insight and the cultural references and quotations are as rich as you would expect from this brilliant writer.' -- Daily Mail 
 
'John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation' -- Country Life 
 
'One of our finest nature writers with an essay length portrait of a bird that has fascinated humans for millennia.' -- Mail on Sunday 
 
'An absolute pleasure to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Hypnotic reading' -- ***** Reader review 
'Absolutely fascinating' -- ***** Reader review 
'Hard to put down once opened, it is finished all too quickly' -- ***** Reader review 
******************************************************************************* 
 'Dusk is filling the valley. It is the time of the gloaming, the owl-light. 
 Out in the wood, the resident tawny has started calling, Hoo-hoo-hoo-h-o-o-o.' 
 
 There is something about owls. They feature in every major culture from the Stone Age onwards. They are creatures of the night, and thus of magic. They are the birds of ill-tidings, the avian messengers from the Other Side. 
But owls - with the sapient flatness of their faces, their big, round eyes, their paternal expressions - are also reassuringly familiar. We see them as wise, like Athena's owl, and loyal, like Harry Potter's Hedwig. Human-like, in other words. 
 
 No other species has so captivated us.

The Secret Life of the Owl

a beautifully illustrated and lyrical celebration of this mythical creature from bestselling and prize-winning author John Lewis-Stempel

Number One Bestseller in both hardback and paperback 
The Sunday Times Book of the Year 
The ideal gift for everybody 
 
'We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.' 
 
Bill Bryson sets off to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts, astonishing stories and now fully illustrated for the first time, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. 
 
A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this new book is an instant classic. It will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again. The ideal gift for readers of every age who wish to discover more about themselves. 
 
'What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.' Bill Bryson

The Body Illustrated

A Guide for Occupants

John Boyne

John Boyne's acclaimed quartet of Water, Earth, Fire and Air come together at last. 
 
Human life is governed by the elements – water, earth, fire and air. They are fundamental to our existence. They sustain us, but they also challenge us. 
 
In The Elements, John Boyne has created a vivid kaleidoscope to reflect that contradiction: a quartet of intertwined narratives, each providing a different perspective on cause and effect from the points of view of the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. 
 
From a mother on the run from her past, to a young football star on trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and finally a father on a transformative journey with his son, the four strands weave together to form a tapestry of intersecting lives. 
 
Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving examination of the fault lines inherent to human experience. In crisp, spellbinding prose, he navigates a complex subject with extraordinary empathy and unflinching honesty, at every step challenging us to confront our own perceptions of who we are and what made us that way.

The Elements

M L Stedman

The mesmeric new novel from the author of the award-winning global bestseller, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS 
____________ 
 
'Heart-wrenching and beautifully set. A gorgeous feast of a novel about family, community, love and the lengths we will go to save them all’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Homemade God 
 
‘A big, bold story of resilience and hope. I was completely swept away’ BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry 
 
'One of those rare books that fill the soul' DONAL RYAN, author of Heart be at Peace and The Spinning Heart 
 
‘Truly a masterpiece. The kind of book you will remember for the rest of your life, and I love the very bones of it’ JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 
 
'Epic, intimate and aching. I loved it’ MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of The Paper Palace 
 
'A world, a story, a cast of characters I truly lost myself in' JENNIE GODFREY, author of The List of Suspicious Things 
____________ 
 
Outback Western Australia, 1958: for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a remote sheep station, Meredith Downs. A million arid acres, it’s an ocean of land, where the weather is a capricious god, and time still roams untamed. 
 
One ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. Then, instead of leaving wounds to heal, Fate comes for them yet again, in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide, as he is forced to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. 
 
A tale of family and belonging, of compassion and hope, A Far-flung Life is about people trying to do their best, each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life. Exploring the lives of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive, this epic novel stands 
as a testament to the enduring power of love.

A Far-flung Life

It’s the tabloid sensation of the year: two well-known footballers standing in the dock, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt. 
 
As the trial unfolds, Evan Keogh reflects on the events that have led him to this moment. Since leaving his island home, his life has been a lie on many levels. He’s a talented footballer who wanted to be an artist. A gay man in a sport that rejects diversity. A defendant whose knowledge of what took place on that fateful night threatens more than just his freedom or career. 
 
The jury will deliver a verdict but, before they do, Evan must judge for himself whether the man he has become is the man he wanted to be.

Earth

Francine Toon

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Pine, comes a haunting and atmospheric new gothic thriller, set in the brooding Scottish landscape. 
 
In this corner of Fife, summer nights meant parties on wind-blown beaches, wrapped in hoodies and denim jackets, pretending you weren’t cold in the stubborn evening light. 
 
JOANIE, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has been looking forward to her big escape. But at the eleventh hour this dream slips through her hands. Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – a pair of charismatic academics at the town’s university – who offer her a new kind of freedom. 
 
CAMERON, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas, a question burns in his mind: whatever happened to Joanie? It’s been a decade since he saw his former friend. But as he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs. How far should he go in pursuit of the truth? 
 
Praise for Francine Toon: 
 
'Dark, beguiling, and steeped in menace, Francine Toon spins a brooding mystery which shimmers with unease' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb 
 
'A chilling, slow-burn novel' i Newspaper 
 
'A taut, eerie exploration of memory, belief, and the treacherous edges of girlhood. Francine Toon has a knack for getting deep under the skin' Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark 
 
‘Toon’s gift for creating an otherworldly atmosphere in small towns with big secrets is present once again in a novel that explores the desire to escape the ordinary’ Scotsman 
 
'A menacing, wind-swept thriller that creeps up on you as stealthily as a figure in the dark' Anna Bailey, author of Tall Bones

Bluff

Richard Collett

Searching for a sense of national and personal identity in an increasingly fragmented United Kingdom, Borderlands merges British history with contemporary politics and culture. Collett’s journey takes him to the banks of the River Tamar - a natural boundary dividing Anglo-Saxon Devon from Celtic Cornwall for a thousand years, to the English-Welsh borders, where Offa’s Dyke has separated the two countries since the 8th century. He then travels north to the Anglo-Scottish borderlands, Orkney and Shetland, and across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland. 
 
Richard Collett speaks to a cast of characters including Cornish nationalists, Welsh speakers teaching Welsh in England, and migrant charity workers helping refugees. For the first time in centuries, Brexit and the pandemic made hard borders an unprecedented reality. Calls for Scottish, Welsh, and even Cornish independence, are a constant backdrop to Collett’s journey. In Northern Ireland, there are fears of a hard border reigniting ‘The Troubles’, while in southern England, issues of immigration have turned the Kent coast into a maritime frontier and political battleground. 
 
Collett explores the rise of regional identities in the midst of an ever-loosening sense of national unity, but ultimately, this isn’t a book about differences and divisions. Borderlands is a travel book that tries to find what unites Britain.

Along the Borders

In search of what divides and unites us

Mary Soames

When Clementine, Lady Spencer-Churchill died in 1977, aged 92, she had become a much-loved and iconic figure to the British public. In spite of being instantly recognisable as the seemingly serene, cool and detached wife of Winston Churchill, she had nonetheless shunned publicity throughout her life. In this fully updated, award-winning biography, her daughter Mary Soames throws new light on her mother, writing with affection and candour of Clementine's fifty-seven-year marriage to Winston, her strongly held political views and a life that spanned many of the major events of the twentieth century. 
 
Clementine Churchill was the perfect wife for Winston. For the years of their marriage she supported him through the triumphs, disasters and tensions that ruled his public and private life. As a shy, passionate and highly-strung woman, Clementine's self-control was constantly tested to the utmost by the turmoil of public life and in the no less harrowing family crises and the ever-present financial anxieties. 
 
When they married in 1908, Winston was already a Member of Parliament, and thereafter their life was played out mostly in front of the nation and the world. Winston always trusted Clementine completely and she became his valuable counsellor and companion. He invariably wanted her opinion - but did not always take her advice. She believed in him unreservedly, and in his destiny. 
 
When first published in 1979, CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL won the Yorkshire Post Prize for Best First Work and a Wolfson Prize for History. This major revision makes full use of a wealth of new, intrinsically personal material that has come to light since then and elaborates further on many of the issues raised in the original edition.

Clementine Churchill

Christopher Somerville

‘Somerville is one of our finest gazetteers of the British countryside. He brings his formidable knowledge to bear on his personal quest to explore the cathedrals in this entrancing book’ 
The Spectator 
 
Christopher Somerville, author of the acclaimed The January Man, pictured cathedrals as great unmoving bastions of tradition. But as he journeys among Britian’s favourites, old and new, he discovers buildings and communities that have been in constant upheaval for a thousand years. Here are stories of the monarchs and bishops who ordered the construction of these buildings, the masons whose genius brought them into being, and the peasants who worked and died on the scaffolding. We learn of rogue saints exploited by holy sinners, the pomp and prosperity that followed these ships of stone, the towns that grew up in their shadows. 
 
Meeting believers and non-believers, architects and archaeologists, the cleaner who dusts the monuments and the mason who judges stone by its taste, we delve deep into the private lives and the uncertain future of these ever-voyaging Ships of Heaven. 
 
‘Somerville paints word pictures of exquisite quality’ 
Church Times

Ships Of Heaven

The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals

Kim Willis

'This book is an act of excavation, and an act of remembering.' 
 
As Kim Willis drifts from the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, she yearns for a new set of stories to light her way. Here, she is pulled towards the source of the Severn, hearing whispers of ancient matriarchs: shape-shifting enchantresses, scaly nymphs and goddesses who once commanded our lands. These are no fair maidens, but powerful warrioresses and animalistic beasts, snaking along the edges of watery places where we meet the otherworld in the shadows. 
 
As she uncovers the ancient myths hidden in the rugged landscapes of the British Isles, the stories of women like Arianrhod, Melusine and Cerridwen awaken a forgotten power. Journeying from the Severn to Skye, Eryri to Northumberland, Kim discovers new magic in the tales of old, unveiling forgotten truths about grief and healing, while charting a new course through sisterhood and sexuality, fertility and freedom. 
 
Through the threads of folklore, history and landscape, Kim identifies a better way of being for modern women, and crafts a new vision for Britain where women are - and always were - a force of nature.

No Fair Maidens

A wild journey with the lost goddesses of Britain

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