Books
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Books
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(M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman (Pre-order - published June 2021)
Pragya Agarwal
£18.99 | Buy
In a world where women have more choices than ever, society nevertheless continues to exert the stigma and pressures of less enlightened times when it comes to having children. We define women by whether they embrace or reject motherhood; whether they can give birth or not. Behavioural Scientist Pragya Agarwal uses her own varied experiences and choices as a woman of South Asian heritage to examine the broader societal, historical and scientific factors that drive how we think and talk about motherhood. She looks at how women's bodies have been monitored and controlled through history, and how this shapes the political constructs of motherhood and womanhood now.
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A Thousand Ships
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker.
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Adventure Revolution : The life-changing power of choosing challenge
Belinda Kirk
£16.99 | Buy
This book is about this transformational power, and the first to explore why adventure is essential to our wellbeing. From managing anxiety and overcoming fear, to finding self-worth and building interpersonal connections, to being happier, healthier, and more playful, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION draws lessons from more than two decades of experience leading groups into the wilderness around the globe. Illuminated with Belinda's personal narrative, her own research with modern hunter-gatherers, and the latest findings in neuroscience and behaviour, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION presents a compelling case for ditching the living room in favour of a longer, happier, and more adventurous life.
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After the Storm: Postnatal Depression and the Utter Weirdness of New Motherhood
Emma Jane Unsworth
£14.99 | Buy
"How did it come to this? I am tough, I am smart, I have lived alone. Now I am cracking, right down the middle..."
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Am I In The Right Place
Ben Pester
£14.99 | Buy
From the extraordinary mind of debut writer Ben Pester comes a book of stories in which the everyday work, parents, friends is not quite what it should be. Taken together, it forms a collection of things we are doing right now, in this lost and terrifying world we are gamely attempting to inhabit. Things like worshipping an imaginary being while trying to be productive; or slowly dying and having nothing to say about it except how tiring it was building the kitchen extension; or having hot martinis with the ambassador in a hotel that ought not to be there. Unsettling, original and occasionally monstrous, these are stories that light the contours of the ordinary world with a shimmering unreality.
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An Answer for Everything : 200 Infographics to Explain the World
Delayed Gratification
£18.99 | Buy
What's the best book ever written? What would happen if we all stopped eating meat? What's the secret to living past 110? And what actually is the best thing since sliced bread? In An Answer For Everything, 200 of the world's most intriguing questions are settled once and for all through beautiful and brilliant infographics. The results will leave you shocked, informed and thoroughly entertained.
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Bargain Bin Rom-Com
Leena Norms
£11.99 | Buy
Bargain Bin Rom-Com is the first collection of poems by Leena Norms. From the politics of ice-cream to the permission slip you didn't know you needed, this is a tongue-in-cheek look at living on a planet that is filled with both doom and glitter.
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Be Extraordinary : 7 Key Skills to Transform Your Life From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Jennifer Wild
£16.99 | Buy
Some people can get over anything. Doctors diagnose them with a rare form of cancer and they recover. They are viciously attacked and blinded yet pull through to start a successful business improving other people's lives. They survive injury in the military, and campaign across the country to raise awareness about the emotional difficulties linked to combat service. These people bounce back from horrendous trauma that would emotionally and physically cripple most people. They flourish with renewed resolve to face any problem with grace and ease.
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Beautiful News: Positive Trends, Uplifting Stats, Creative Solution
David McCandless
£27 | Buy
In this fascinating follow-up to the bestselling Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful, the king of infographics David McCandless uses spectacular visuals to give us all a bit of good news.We are living in the Information Age, in which we are constantly bombarded with data – on television, in print and online. How can we relate to this mind-numbing overload? Enter David McCandless and his amazing infographics: simple, elegant ways to understand information too complex or abstract to grasp any way but visually. In his unique signature style, he creates dazzling displays that blend facts with their connections, contexts and relationships, making information meaningful, entertaining – and beautiful.
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Being You : A New Science of Consciousness
Anil Seth
£22 | Buy
Being You is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned neuroscientist Anil Seth puts forward a radical new theory of consciousness and self. His unique theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality and it turns what you thought you knew about yourself on its head.
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Blinded by Corona : How the Pandemic Ruined Britain's Health and Wealth and What to Do about It
Prof. John Ashton
£14.99 | Buy
Professor Ashton has lifelong hands-on experience and a deep scholarly understanding of the science of public health, a discipline invented in Britain. In this scathing critique he notes that nothing that the UK government has done to deal with COVID-19 is recognisable against two centuries of knowledge. Instead, it is designing untested methods at exceptional expense that have created a public-health and economic crisis never seen before.
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Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being
Paul Mason
£11.99 | Buy
'Thrilling, brilliant, radical ... an admirable defence of humans against machines' GuardianA passionate defence of humanity and a work of radical optimism from the international bestselling author of PostcapitalismHow do we preserve what makes us human in an age of uncertainty? Are we now just consumers shaped by market forces? A sequence of DNA? A collection of base instincts? Or will we soon be supplanted by algorithms and A.I. anyway?In Clear Bright Future, Paul Mason calls for a radical, impassioned defence of the human being, our universal rights and freedoms and our power to change the world around us.
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Conflicted: How Productive Disagreements Lead to Better Outcomes
Ian Leslie
£16.99 | Buy
What is the secret of happy relationships?
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Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues
David L Bradford and Carole Robin
£16.99 | Buy
The ability to create strong relationships with others is crucial to living a full life and becoming more effective at work. Yet many of us find ourselves struggling to build solid personal and professional connections, or unable to handle challenges that inevitably arise when we grow closer to others. When we find ourselves in an exceptional relationship--the kind of relationship where we feel fully understood and supported for who we are--it can seem like magic. But the truth is that the process of building and sustaining these relationships can be described, learned, and applied.
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Dear Reader : The Comfort and Joy of Books
Cathy Rentzenbrink
£14.99 | Buy
Dear Reader is a moving, funny and joyous exploration of how books can change the course of your life, packed with recommendations from one reader to another. For as long as she can remember, Cathy Rentzenbrink has lost and found herself in stories. Growing up she was rarely seen without her nose in a book and read in secret long after lights out. When tragedy struck, books kept her afloat. Eventually they lit the way to a new path, first as a bookseller and then as a writer. No matter what the future holds, reading will always help.
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Doughnut Economics : Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
Kate Raworth
£12.99 | Buy
Relentless financial crises. Extreme inequalities in wealth. Remorseless pressure on the environment. Anyone can see that our economic system is broken. But can it be fixed? In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth identifies the seven critical ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray - from selling us the myth of 'rational economic man' to obsessing over growth at all costs - and offers instead an alternative roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. Ambitious, radical and provocative, she offers a new cutting-edge economic model fit for the challenges of the 21st century.
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F**k Work let's Play: Do what you love & get paid for it
John Williams
£16.99 | Buy
Stuck in a job that’s boring you to tears? Slogging away at a business that’s never quite taken off? Still can’t decide what you’d rather do? It’s time to say ‘enough’.
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Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive (Pre-order - published July 2021)
Kristin Neff
£16.99 | Buy
A follow up from the bestselling Self-Compassion, this book shows why it is more urgent than ever that women acknowledge their areas of suffering, celebrate their inner voice and challenge the male-orientated status quo.
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Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil (Pre-order - published May 2021)
Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and Francis de Vericourt
£22 | Buy
Don't just think deep, think wide. From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence. But how we see them affects how we respond and lets us uncover hidden options that expand our thinking. In this bold, optimistic book, the authors of the bestselling Big Data show how humans have a unique cognitive ability to frame - to create mental models that allow us to spot patterns, make predictions and grasp new situations. While computers may now excel at reasoning and judgement, framing is unique to humans. This book is the first guide to mastering an essential skill for the 21st century.
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From the Veg Patch : 10 favourite vegetables, 100 simple recipes everyone will love
Kathy Slack
£25 | Buy
Everyday recipes that make vegetables the star of the show. Kathy Slack takes us through a year in her veg patch in this celebration of her ten favourite things to grow and eat. Peas, lettuce, courgettes, beans, tomatoes, beetroot, squash, apples, kale and leeks; all simple to grow, affordable and readily available to anyone without a growing space of their own. Most recipes are vegetarian, some use meat or fish, but every dish makes veg the star of the plate. This is food for everyone and every day.
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Good Grief: Embracing life at a time of death
Catherine Mayer
£18.99 | Buy
‘Grief is more than the price of love. It is love. We must learn not just to live with it, but to make it welcome.’
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Head First : A Psychiatrist's Stories of Mind and Body
Dr Alastair Santhouse
£12.99 | Buy
What does it mean to be well? Is it something in our body? Or, is it rather something subjective - something of the mind? In this profound collection of clinical stories, eminent psychiatrist Dr Alastair Santhouse draws on his experience of treating thousands of hospital patients to show how our emotions are inextricably linked to our physical wellbeing.
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Her Majesty's Royal Coven
Juno Dawson
£16.99 | Buy
Hidden among us is a secret coven of witches. They are Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. They protect crown and country from magical forces and otherworldly evil. But their greatest enemy will come from within. There are whisperings of a prophecy that will bring the coven to its knees, and five best friends are about to be caught at the centre. Life as a modern witch was never simple … but now it’s about to get apocalyptic. Prepare to be bewitched by Juno Dawson’s first adult series. A story of ancient prophecies and modern dating, of sacred sisterhood and demonic frenemies.
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How Confidence Works: The new science of self-belief (paperback, pre-order)
Professor Ian Robertson
£16.99 | Buy
Imagine we could discover something that could make us richer, healthier, longer-living, smarter, kinder, happier, more motivated and more innovative. Ridiculous, you might say... What is this elixir? Confidence. If you have it, it can empower you to reach heights you never thought possible. But if you don't, it can have a devastating effect on your future. Confidence lies at the core of what makes things happen.
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How To Break Up With Fast Fashion : A guilt-free guide to changing the way you shop - for good
Lauren Bravo
£11.99 | Buy
Fast fashion is the ultimate toxic relationship. It's bad news for the planet, our brains and our bank balances. We can't go on like this; our shopping habits need an overhaul. Journalist Lauren Bravo loves clothes more than anything, but she's called time on her affair with fast fashion in search of a slower, saner way of dressing. In this book, she'll help you do the same. How To Break Up With Fast Fashion will help you to change your mindset, fall back in love with your wardrobe and embrace more sustainable ways of shopping - from the clothes swap to the charity shop. Full of refreshing honesty and realistic advice, Lauren will inspire you to repair, recycle and give your unloved items a new lease of life without sacrificing your style.
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How To Save Our Planet: The Facts
Mark Maslin
£9.99 | Buy
How can we save our planet and survive the 21st century? How can you argue with deniers? How can we create positive change in the midst of the climate crisis?
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Hysterical: Exploding the Myth of Gendered Emotions - pre-order (published 1/9/22)
Pragya Agarwal
£18.99 | Buy
Emotions can be difficult things to define, yet we all recognise them when we feel them or see them in others. How we interpret those emotions and act on them has been heavily gendered, as far back as Ancient Greek and Roman times and - despite the improvements in societal equality - continues to be today. We've all heard the sayings that girls should be 'sugar and spice and all things nice', while 'boys don't cry'. In Hysterical, Pragya Agarwal dives deep into the history and science that has determined the gendering of emotions to ask whether there is any truth in the notion of innate differences between the male and female experience of emotions. She examines the impact this has on men and women - especially the role it has played in the subjugation of women throughout history - and how a future where emotions are ungendered might look.
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Identically Different: Why You Can Change Your Genes
Professor Tim Spector
£11.99 | Buy
Since the discovery of DNA, scientists have believed that genes are fixed entities that cannot be changed by environment - we inherit them, pass them on to our children and take them with us when we die. Professor Tim Spector reveals how the latest genetic research and his own pioneering studies on epigenetics are rewriting everything we thought we knew about genes, identity and evolution. Conceptually, he explains, our genes are not fixed entities but more like plastic, able to change shape and evolve, and these changes can be passed on to future generations.
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Life Time : The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health
Russell Foster
£18.99 | Buy
In the twenty-first century, we increasingly push our daily routines into the night, carrying out work, exercise and our social lives long after dark. But we have forgotten that our bodies are governed by a 24-hour biological clock which guides us towards the best time to sleep, eat and think. New science has proven that living out of sync with this clock is not only disrupting our sleep, but leaving us more vulnerable to infection, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mental illness.
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Live More Think Less: Overcoming Depression and Sadness with Metacognitive
Pia Callesen
£14.99 | Buy
Dr Pia Callesen presents the first practical book on metacognitive therapy, a groundbreaking new treatment proven to stop depression in its tracks.
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Live Well Every Day
Dr Alex George
£20.99 | Buy
Dr Alex is on a mission to empower us to make our own health choices, take positive control and feel equipped and inspired to make those small changes today that energise and future-proof for life. 'Health and happiness come from the cumulative effects of many small and positive daily changes to our lifestyle. It's about building sustainable and healthy habits - taking small and purposeful steps to a healthy future. By the end of the book, I hope my readers have developed their own "bespoke health toolkit" to be used across every aspect of their lives, and to make long-lasting and meaningful change.'
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London is a Forest
Paul Wood
£17 | Buy
Exploring the rich diversity of London through a series of urban forest trails, this new, expanded edition of London is a Forest uncovers the fascinating stories and secrets the city holds. Through seven carefully devised paths, author Paul Wood explores the urban forest's geography, its past and future, and looks at the remarkable variety of life supported in this unique metropolitan ecosystem. For curious Londoners and anyone who’s fascinated by nature, a wealth of arboreal details, history, myth and anecdotes are revealed along the way. Complementing the trails, Wood looks in more detail at the fascinating stories of some of the iconic, and some of the less obvious species that define the urban forest.
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Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
Kelefa Sanneh
£22 | Buy
From his own adolescence, when his allegiance was to punk rock, to his work as one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture at the New York Times and the New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh has made a deep study of how our popular music unites and divides us, the tribes it forms, and how its genres, shape-shifting across the years, give us a way to track larger forces and concerns.
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Making a Living
Sophie Rochester
£16.99 | Buy
Making a Living has been carefully crafted to support anyone looking for practical, hands-on advice and inspiring stories to motivate them to make their dream business into a reality. Inspiring stories from jewellery makers to basket weavers, artists to terrarium makers, printmakers to ceramicists, bring bags of real-world advice and inspiration for those wanting to take their first steps into this new artisanal economy.
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Making Your Voice Heard: How to own your space, access your inner power and become influential.
Prof. Connson Chou Locke
£14.99 | Buy
A fresh take on how to influence others regardless of your gender or background.Making Your Voice Heard is based on the hugely popular sell-out Guardian Masterclass and Connson’s experience teaching leadership and
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Money and Power : The World Leaders Who Changed Economics
Sir Vince Cable
£22 | Buy
Through economics, our politicians have the power to transform people's lives for better or worse. Think Deng Xiaoping who lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China; Franklin D Roosevelt whose 'New Deal' helped the USA break free of the Great Depression. Or Peron and his successors in Argentina who brought the country to the brink of ruin.
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Mrs Death Misses Death
Salena Godden
£16.99 | Buy
Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen.
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Musical Truth : A Musical Journey Through Modern Black Britain
Jeffrey Boakye and Ngadi Smart
£9.99 | Buy
Lord Kitchener, Neneh Cherry, Smiley Culture, Stormzy . . . Groundbreaking musicians whose songs have changed the world. But how? This exhilarating playlist tracks some of the key shifts in modern British history, and explores the emotional impact of 28 songs and the artists who performed them. This book redefines British history, the Empire and postcolonialism, and will invite you to think again about the narratives and key moments in history that you have been taught up to now.
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News and How to Use It : What to Believe in a Fake News World
Alan Rusbridger
£11.99 | Buy
Nothing in life works without facts. A society that isn't sure what's true can't function. Without facts there can be no government or law. Science is ignored. Trust evaporates. People everywhere feel ever more alienated from - and mistrustful of - news and those who make it. We no longer seem to know who or what to believe. We are living through a crisis of 'information chaos'.
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Of Women: In the 21st Century
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti
£11.99 | Buy
This book starts from the position that gender injustice is the greatest human rights abuse on the planet. It blights First and developing worlds; rich and poor women. Gender injustice impacts health, wealth, education, representation, opportunity and security everywhere.
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Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (paperback)
Natalie Haynes
£11.99 | Buy
'Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!' – Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
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Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
Tim Marshall
£11.99 | Buy
Geography shapes not only our history, but where we're headed... All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.
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Radical Uncertainty : Decision-making for an unknowable future
Mervyn King
£27 | Buy
LONGLISTED FOR THE FT/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020'A brilliant new book' Daily Telegraph 'Well written . . . and often entertaining 'The Times'
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Red Sauce Brown Sauce : A British Breakfast Odyssey
Felicity Cloake
£18.99 | Buy
We all have an opinion on the merits of brown sauce versus ketchup on our morning bacon sarnie. In this eagerly awaited follow-up to One More Croissant for the Road, the nation’s favourite taster-in-chief Felicity Cloake sets off on a cycle trip of condimental proportions to investigate and celebrate the legendary Great British Breakfast. Travelling the length and breadth of the UK to establish once and for all what makes a perfect fry-up, she rates them on criteria from the crispness of the bacon to how long they keep her pedalling. But a woman cannot live by All Day Breakfast alone, so as well as recipes for the Savoy's Omelette Arnold Bennett and proper Scottish porridge, she lavishes her attention on the regional specialities she encounters along the way, from a desi breakfast in Birmingham to a Greggs Geordie stottie cake. This is a freewheeling gastronomical tour like no other.
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Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World
Carolyn Steel
£11.99 | Buy
We live in a world shaped by food, a Sitopia (sitos - food; topos - place). Food, and how we search for and consume it, has defined our human journey.
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Spoon-Fed: Why Almost Everything We’ve Been Told about Food is Wrong
Professor Tim Spector
£11.99 | Buy
We are all bombarded with advice about what we should and shouldn't eat, and new scientific discoveries are announced every day. Yet the more we are told about nutrition, the less we seem to understand.
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Stone Blind: Medusa's Story (pre-order, published 15.9.22)
Natalie Haynes
£22 | Buy
Natalie Haynes – the Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships – brings the infamous Medusa to life as you have never seen her before . . .
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Sylvia Pankhurst : Natural Born Rebel
Rachel Holmes
£35 | Buy
'It's impossible to summarise adequately a book so magnificent' Gerard DeGroot, The Times The definitive biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, a woman ahead of her times - political rebel, human rights champion and radical feminist. Born into one of Britain's most famous activist families, Sylvia Pankhurst was a natural rebel; a talented artist, prolific writer and newspaper editor. A free spirit and radical visionary, history placed her in the shadow of her famous mother, Emmeline, and elder sister, Christabel.
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Symphonies for the Soul : Classical music to cure any ailment
Oliver Condy
£17 | Buy
Whether you suffer from loneliness or laziness, from bereavement or betrayal, a heartbreak or a mere hangover, here you'll find the perfect piece of classical music to heal the heart, soothe the soul and cure the maladies of the modern world. Musician and writer Oliver Condy takes the role of musical physician, using his years of experience to prescribe remedies for all manner of ailments in the form of classical music.
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Talk : The Science of Conversation
Elizabeth Stokoe
£11.99 | Buy
We spend much of our days talking. Yet we know little about the conversational engine that drives our everyday lives. We are pushed and pulled around by language far more than we realize, yet are seduced by stereotypes and myths about communication. This book will change the way you think about talk. It will explain the big pay-offs to understanding conversation scientifically.
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Taste Tibet
Julie Kleeman and Yeshi Jampa
£27 | Buy
today, but it has been traditional in Tibet for over 8,000 years. Taste Tibet is a collection of over 80 recipes from the Tibetan Plateau written for today's home cook. Create comforting soups and stews, learn the secrets of hand-pulled noodles, and everything you need to know about making and eating momo dumplings, Tibet's most legendary and addictive culinary export. Alongside the recipes, award-winning food writer Julie Kleeman and Tibetan cook Yeshi Jampa, who run the Taste Tibet restaurant and food stall in Oxford, interweave stories of Yeshi's childhood in Tibet, and the shared love of food that brought them together. They reveal nomadic Himalayan food culture and practices, including mindful eating and communal cooking - a way of life that celebrates family, togetherness and respect for food - while exploring the relationship between landscape and diet, evoking the simple, subtle and unique flavours of Tibet.
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The Amber Fury
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
When you open up, who will you let in? When Alex Morris loses her fiance in dreadful circumstances, she moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Alex takes a job at a Pupil Referral Unit, which accepts the students excluded from other schools in the city. These are troubled, difficult kids and Alex is terrified of what she's taken on. There is one class - a group of five teenagers - who intimidate Alex and every other teacher on The Unit. But with the help of the Greek tragedies she teaches, Alex gradually develops a rapport with them. Finding them enthralled by tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge, Alex even begins to worry that they are taking her lessons to heart, and that a whole new tragedy is being performed, right in front of her. The Amber Fury is a beautifully constructed psychological page-turner. It is a dark mystery of a novel about loss, obsession, and the deep, abiding human need to connect.
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The Ancient Guide to Modern Life
Natalie Haynes
£11.99 | Buy
It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't simply a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humour, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all.
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The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age
Claudia Hammond
£12.5 | Buy
Much of value has been written about sleep, but rest is different; it is how we unwind, calm our minds and recharge our bodies. The Art of Rest draws on ground-breaking research Claudia Hammond collaborated on: 'The Rest Test', the largest global survey into rest ever undertaken, completed by 18,000 people across 135 different countries. The survey revealed how people get rest and how it is directly linked to your sense of wellbeing.
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The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously than Men, and What We Can Do About It
Mary Ann Sieghart
£18.99 | Buy
Imagine living in a world in which you were routinely patronised by women.
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The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist’s Guide To Ageing Well
Daniel Levitin
£11.99 | Buy
We have long been encouraged to think of old age as synonymous with deterioration. Yet, recent studies show that our decision-making skills improve as we age and our happiness levels peak in our eighties. What really happens to our brains as we get older? More of us are living into our eighties than ever before.
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The Children of Jocasta
Natalie Haynes
£10.99 | Buy
In The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes takes a fresh perspective on an ancient story, reimagining in gripping prose how the Oedipus and Antigone stories would look if the oft-overlooked female characters took centre stage. Retelling the myth to reveal a new side of an ancient story . . .
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The Crossway
Guy Stagg
£11.99 | Buy
In 2013 Guy Stagg walked from Canterbury to Jerusalem. Though a non-believer, he began the pilgrimage after suffering several years of mental illness, hoping the ritual would heal him. For ten months he hiked alone on ancient paths, crossing ten countries and more than 5,500 kilometres. Travelling without support, he had to rely each night on the charity of strangers. The Crossway is an account of Stagg's extraordinary journey. It describes the dangers he faced on the road, captures the people he met and the landscapes he experienced, offers a unique insight into contemporary faith, and – most movingly – lays bare his struggle to escape the past and walk towards recovery. It was a BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' on publication.
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The Curious History of Dating : From Jane Austen to Tinder
Nichi Hodgson
£14.99 | Buy
Dating has never been easy. The road to true love has always been rutted with heartbreak, but do we have it any easier today? How did Victorians 'come out'? How did love blossom in war-torn Europe? And why did 80s video-dating never take off? Bursting with little-known facts and tantalizing tales of lovelorn men and besotted women, Nichi Hodgson's intriguing history of amorous relationships, from enamoured Georgians to frenziedly swiping millennials (and everyone in between) may leave you grateful that you live - and love - today.
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The Dance Cure : The surprising secret to being smarter, stronger, happier
Dr Peter Lovatt
£11.99 | Buy
Humans are born to dance. And in today's sedentary world, we would all benefit from doing more of it. Science shows that just ten minutes of dancing provides a thorough work out for the body and brain, raising the heartbeat to cause a release of feel-good endorphins, connecting us to our emotions and reducing our stress levels. Dancing quite simply makes us feel more alive. Dr Peter Lovatt, a former professional dancer turned dance psychologist, has spent the past two decades studying why we dance and what it does for us, and is on a personal mission to make dancing as natural an activity in our daily lives as walking or drinking coffee.
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The Dialogues Conversations about the Nature of the Universe
Clifford V Johnson
£17.99 | Buy
A series of conversations about science in graphic form, on subjects that range from the science of cooking to the multiverse. Physicist Clifford Johnson thinks that we should have more conversations about science. Science should be on our daily conversation menu, along with topics like politics, books, sports, or the latest prestige cable drama.
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The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat
Professor Tim Spector
£10.99 | Buy
Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter?
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The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life
David Robson
£20.99 | Buy
You’ve probably heard of the placebo effect and how sugar pills can accelerate healing. But did you know that your overall expectations of your fitness can influence your risk of an actual heart attack? That labels for diet foods can make you hungrier than if you had eaten nothing at all? Or that people who associate ageing with personal growth live for seven years longer than those who associate it with frailty and disability? Drawing on a pioneering new theory of the brain, David Robson will explain the power of your mindset to influence on your health, fitness, happiness, and longevity.
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The Five O'Clock Apron : Proper Food for Modern Families
Claire Thomson
£32 | Buy
Faced with the daily challenge of what to cook for her three young children, chef and mum Claire Thomson made it her mission to inspire parents stuck in a teatime rut. Every day she makes a ‘proper’ tea, tweeting it at 5pm - from that her blog '5 O’clock Apron' was born and a popular Guardian column on cooking for children followed.
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The Five: The Untold Stories of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
Hallie Rubenhold
£11.99 | Buy
Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London - the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.
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The Go-Between : A Portrait of Growing Up Between Different Worlds
Osman Yousefzada
£16.99 | Buy
A coming-of-age story set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, The Go-Between opens a window into a closed migrant community living in a red-light district on the wrong side of the tracks. The adult world is seen through Osman's eyes as a child: his own devout Pashtun patriarchal community, with its divide between the world of men and women, living cheek-by-jowl with parallel migrant communities. The orthodox attend a mosque down the road from the prostitutes and pimps. Children balance Western school teachings with cultural traditions.
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The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World
Roman Krznaric
£12.99 | Buy
'This is the book our children's children will thank us for reading' - The Edge, U2How can we be good ancestors?From the first seeds sown thousands of years ago, to the construction of the cities we still inhabit, to the scientific discoveries that have ensured our survival, we are the inheritors of countless gifts from the past. Today, in an age driven by the tyranny of the now, with 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button commanding our attention, we rarely stop to consider how our actions will affect future generations. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises, the call for long-term thinking grows every day - but what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it? In The Good Ancestor, leading public philosopher Roman Krznaric argues that there is still hope.
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The Handshake: A Gripping History (pre-order)
Ella Al-Shamahi
£9.99 | Buy
Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.
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The Human Planet : How We Created the Anthropocene
Simon L Lewis and Mark A Maslin
£11.99 | Buy
'Brilliantly written and genuinely one of the most important books I have ever read' - Ellie Mae O'Hagan An engrossing exploration of the science, history and politics of the Anthropocene, one of the most important scientific ideas of our time, from two world-renowned expertsMeteorites, methane, mega-volcanoes and now human beings; the old forces of nature that transformed Earth many millions of years ago are joined by another: us. Our actions have driven Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. For the first time in our home planet's 4.5-billion year history a single species is dictating Earth's future.
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The Importance of Being Interested : Adventures in Scientific Curiosity
Robin Ince
£19.99 | Buy
In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn't just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more - as well as charting Robin's own journey with science - The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult. From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage much needed intellectual humility, this optimistic and profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.
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The Last Act of Love : The Story of My Brother and His Sister
Cathy Rentzenbrink
£10.99 | Buy
In the summer of 1990, Cathy's brother Matty was knocked down by a car on the way home from a night out. It was two weeks before his GCSE results, which turned out to be the best in his school. Sitting by his unconscious body in hospital, holding his hand and watching his heartbeat on the monitors, Cathy and her parents willed him to survive. They did not know then that there are many and various fates worse than death.
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The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth
Michael Spitzer
£32 | Buy
165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages - from Bach to BTS and back - to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, looking at music in our everyday lives; music in world history; and music in evolution, from insects to apes, humans to AI.
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The Perfume Companion : The Definitive Guide to Choosing Your Next Scent
Sarah McCartney
£24 | Buy
The Perfume Companion is a beautifully illustrated compendium of almost 500 recommended scents, designed to help you pick out your next favourite fragrance. Perfumes have the power to evoke treasured memories, make us feel fabulous and help us express our best self. But with so many out there, how do you choose something new? When the scents in the perfume shop are merging into one aromatic haze, how do you remain focused? And if your favourite scent goes out of stock, how do you replace it? The Perfume Companion is here to help. Sarah McCartney and Samantha Scriven deliver a host of scents for you to try – including bargain finds and luxury treasures, iconic stalwarts and indie newcomers, the lightest florals and the deepest leathers.
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The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveals the Future of Our World
Tim Marshall
£18.99 | Buy
Ten maps that reveal the future of global power and politics: the much-anticipated sequel to the million-copy bestseller Prisoners of Geography.
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The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop
Adam Kucharski
£11.99 | Buy
We live in a world that's more interconnected than ever before. Our lives are shaped by outbreaks - of disease, of misinformation, even of violence - that appear, spread and fade away with bewildering speed. To understand them, we need to learn the hidden laws that govern them. From 'superspreaders' who might spark a pandemic or bring down a financial system to the social dynamics that make loneliness catch on, The Rules of Contagion offers compelling insights into human behaviour and explains how we can get better at predicting what happens next.
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The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World (pre-order)
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
£27 | Buy
A major new biography of Charles Dickens, tracing the year that would transform his life and times
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The Windrush Betrayal : Exposing the Hostile Environment
Amelia Gentleman
£12.99 | Buy
"LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2019**SHORTISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2020*'[Gentleman's] reporting proves why an independent press is so vital.' Reni Eddo-Lodge'A timely reminder of what truly great journalists can achieve.' David Olusoga'It is impossible to overstate the importance of this heartbreaking book.' James O'BrienAmelia Gentleman's expose of the Windrush scandal shocked the nation, and led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. Her tenacious reporting revealed how the government's 'hostile environment' immigration policy had led to thousands of law-abiding people being wrongly classified as illegal immigrants, with many being removed from the country, and many more losing their homes and their jobs. In The Windrush Betrayal, Gentleman tells the full story of her investigation for the first time.
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Tomato : 80 Recipes Celebrating the Extraordinary Tomato
Claire Thomson
£24 | Buy
Where would we be without the tomato? From South America, on through much of Europe, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, almost every culture and cuisine has found ways of making tomatoes their own. Fresh and also tinned, tomatoes have proved themselves to be an endlessly versatile ingredient, much loved by all. In Tomato, best-selling author and professional chef Claire Thomson offers up her best 80 recipes with tomatoes as star of the show.
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War: How Conflict Shaped Us
Margaret MacMillan
£22 | Buy
New York Times 10 Best Book of 2020 Sunday Times best book for Autumn 2020 Guardian critics' pick for Autumn 2020 Wall Street Journal notable book of 2020 The time since the Second World War has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the 'long peace', as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history.
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What Mental Illness Really Is... (and what it isn't)
Lucy Foulkes
£11.99 | Buy
How do mental health problems arise? How do we distinguish between the 'normal' challenges of modern life and actual illness? Is society really experiencing a new mental health crisis? In this urgently needed book, psychologist Lucy Foulkes investigates what we know about mental illness - and shines a light on what we don't. It offers a profound new approach to how we think, talk and help when it comes to mental health.
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White privilege: The myth of a post-racial society
Professor Kalwant Bhopal
£15.99 | Buy
Why and how do those from black and minority ethnic communities continue to be marginalised? Despite claims that we now live in a post-racial society, race continues to disadvantage those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Kalwant Bhopal explores how neoliberal policy making has increased rather than decreased discrimination faced by those from non-white backgrounds. She also shows how certain types of whiteness are not privileged; Gypsies and Travellers, for example, remain marginalised and disadvantaged in society.
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Why the F*ck Can’t I Change?: Insights from a neuroscientist to show that you can
Dr. Gabija Toleikyte
£15.99 | Buy
Most of us want to change something about ourselves. It might be our response to stress, our weight, patterns in our relationships or our performance at work. Change is hard, it’s emotional, but it’s not as impossible as you think…
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Why We Eat Too Much
Dr Andrew Jenkinson
£11.99 | Buy
Join us on 21st May for the next in our Salon Lockdown series as we explore ‘Why We Eat (Too Much)’.
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Write It All Down : How to Put Your Life on the Page
Cathy Rentzenbrink
£16.99 | Buy
Sunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink shows you how to tackle all this and more in Write It All Down, a guide to putting your life on the page. Complete with a compendium of advice from amazing writers such as Dolly Alderton, Adam Kay and Candice Carty-Williams, this book is here to help you discover the pleasure and solace to be found in writing; the profound satisfaction of wrestling a story onto a page and seeing the events of your life transformed through the experience of writing a memoir.
