Aaron Dignan is the founder of The Ready--a global organizational transformation and coaching practice--that helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. Clients include Johnson &amp; Johnson, Microsoft, Lloyds Bank, Citibank, Boeing, Mailchimp, Airbnb, Dropbox, and charity: water. 
 
He is also the founder of Murmur--a SaaS startup that helps teams scale culture through the magic of working agreements. The Murmur platform will allow every team on the planet to define and share their ways of working. 
 
Dignan is the author of Brave New Work (2019) and Game Frame (2011), co-host of the Brave New Work podcast, and a friend to misfit toys.

Aaron Dignan

Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, specialising in terrorism and counter-insurgency. He is the author and editor of several books, including Defending the Realm: The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars Since 1945, and has lectured all over the world on aspects of national and international security. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Aaron Edwards

Aaron Robertson is a writer, an editor, and a translator of Italian literature. His translation of Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon was short-listed for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize and the National Translation Award, and in 2021 he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, n+1, The Point, and Literary Hub, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Aaron Robertson

Aaron Shapiro

Aaron T Beck

Aaron Vallance

Aaron Young was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and read Politics and Communications at The University of Liverpool. He is a BAFTA-nominated director, producer and executive producer with over 20 years of experience across projects for the BBC, PBS, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, UK Film Council and Arts Council England. A long-time collaborator of acclaimed historian, James Holland, he is the producer and director of the BAFTA-shortlisted BBC titles ‘Battle of Britain: The Real Story’ and, ‘Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams’, as well as ‘The Battle for Malta’, ‘Normandy ’44: The Battle Beyond D-Day’, the RTS-nominated ‘Imphal &amp; Kohima: Britain’s Greatest Battle.’, and the 3-part series, 'Normandy '44: D-Day and the Battle for France. His most recent credits include 'Hidden Histories of WWII', 'Lost Temples of Cambodia', the RTS-winning ‘Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany’, and ‘Prue Leith: Journey with My Daughter’. Aaron was named in the inaugural list of BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch.’ He is the co-owner of award-winning film and television production company, Bright Button Productions, and lives with his wife and children in Poundbury, Dorset.

Aaron Young

Aatish Taseer

Abbe Prevost

Abbey Bryant is an NYC-based award-winning illustrator. With her BFA in Children's Book Illustration, her notable illustrated books include Nautilus award winner Hazel Mist, Hypnotist as well as an Enchanted Fairy House Kit with Scholastic's Klutz! 
 
As a queer illustrator, LGBTQ+ themes and stories hold a spot near to her heart. Most days she can be found around the city drawing New Yorkers or sketching trees at the park.

Abbey Bryant

Abbey Clancy is a model, television presenter and the host of chart-topping podcast The Therapy Crouch. She was the runner-up of Britain's Next Top Model in 2006, winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and went on to present Britain's Next Top Model. Later this year she will host Celebrity Homes on ITV.

Abbey Clancy

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years. She was inspired to write her first novel, The Silent Treatment, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. 
 
Abbie lives in Brighton with her boyfriend.

Abbie Greaves

Abbie Ross is a British author and psychotherapist. Her first book, Hippy Dinners, a funny and poignant memoir of her bohemian childhood in 1970s North Wales, has been optioned by Baby Cow, who are developing it into an 8-part television series. 
Before turning to writing, Abbie had a successful career as a producer at Aardman Animations, the acclaimed studios behind Wallace &amp; Gromit and the film Chicken Run. 
Today, she divides her time between her thriving psychotherapy practice in Bristol, and her writing, and finds that the two careers complement each other perfectly.

Abbie Ross

Abbie Spallen

Abbie Taylor lives in Dublin. She works as a doctor and has two daughters.

Abbie Taylor

Abby L Yates co-founded the Ghostbusters with Erin Gilbert. Ghosts from Our Past was her first book, now finally back in print.

Abby L Yates

Abby Lee

Abby Rawlinson is an integrative therapist with a private practice based in east London, UK. Her work mixes traditional psychotherapeutic theories with cutting-edge, evidence-based techniques into a style that feels relatable, down-to-earth, and compassionate. Abby regularly contributes to articles, including but not limited to Stylist, Elle, BBC, Harpers Bazaar, Sheerluxe, Women's Health, and Psychologies. She can be found on Instagram @therapywithabby or online at therapywithabby.co.uk

Abby Rawlinson

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medallist, FIFA World Cup champion, six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award and one of Time’s Most Influential People. She is a founder of Treat Media, an award-winning media company that makes art for humans who want to stay human. Abby is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wolfpack and the New York Times bestseller Forward. Named one of the ‘50 Most Powerful People in Podcasting,’ she is co-host of the chart-topping podcast We Can Do Hard Things, which has received over a half billion plays. Abby is an executive producer of the Sundance award-winning film Come See Me in the Good Light, part owner of the NWSL’s Angel City Football Club and sits on multiple boards. Her most recent book, We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions, created with Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle and Treat Media, is being hailed as ‘the guidebook for being alive.’

Abby Wambach

Abel &amp; Cole’s story starts in 1988 with Keith Abel flogging potatoes door-to-door. ‘Of course potatoes are organic,’ he thought, ‘they’re vegetables’. However, he quickly discovered how unnecessarily complicated our food system had become and, consequently, realised the huge benefits of going organic and never looked back. In fact, Abel &amp; Cole still get veg from the farm where Keith's first organic spuds came from. 
To this day, their priorities remain the same. Now, selling 100% organic produce, Abel &amp; Cole believe that organic farming (a holistic system that encourages biodiversity) is the very best way to go. It protects our countryside and the critters that inhabit it, insists on the very best animal welfare, supports your local community and, frankly, tastes heaps better. Abel &amp; Cole think so anyway.

Abel & Cole Limited

Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In 2011, he was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 global thinkers. Banerjee served on the U.N. Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Abhijit V. Banerjee

Abhishek Mukherjee, 30, is a Delhi-based journalist. He holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Delhi University, a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Raipur. He also likes dogs.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Africa, Berkshire and London. She is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of RUMBLESTAR (first in The Unmapped Chronicles), SKY SONG &amp; THE DREAMSNATCHER TRILOGY, published by S&amp;S. When she's not writing, Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story.

Abi Elphinstone

Abi Falase is a Black British writer and director, reimagining fundamental societal concepts in inventive new worlds. Abi has written and directed a number of plays, including The Village and Rush with the Almedia Theatre, as well as Rift for Immediate Theatre and was shortlisted for the BBC Scriptworks ‘A Thousand Stories’ scriptwriting competition in 2021.

Abi Falase

Abi Titmuss

Abie Longstaff is the eldest of six children and grew up in Australia, Hong Kong and France. She knows all about squabbling, chaos and bossing younger sisters around. So she logically began her career as a barrister. She started writing when her children were born. Her favourite childhood books were Hating Alison Ashley, A Little Princess, Maura's Angel and The Black Stallion and she sneakily reads them again sometimes. Abie lives in Hove with her family.

Abie Longstaff

Abigail Ahern

Abigail Balfe is a queer, auDHD author-illustrator and Emmy award-winning creative based in Brighton. Before writing books full-time, Abigail led digital campaigns for pop stars such as One Direction and Little Mix, and for TV broadcasters including Channel 4 and Netflix. She also performed stand-up comedy and won several small trophies for her onstage humour, which featured life-size illustrations, ridiculous songs, and rambling stories about her family. In 2023, Abigail was named one of the Top 50 Influential Neurodivergent Women in the UK.

Abigail Balfe

Abigail Docherty

Abigail Foster is a Chartered Accountant and founder of Elent Finance, a financial education company designed to demystify the world of finance and empower you to achieve financial wellbeing. 
 
Abigail has worked with leading financial institutions across the UK, including HMRC, the Bank of England and Downing Street, and global companies such as Google and Goldman Sachs. She hosts a weekly money segment on LBC radio and has also appeared as a finance expert on ITV, Channel 5 and Sky News.

Abigail Foster

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Gabriele Marcotti

Fabio Capello is a born winner. As a midfielder with Roma, Juventus and Milan, he won four Italian league championships and two cups, and played for his country 32 times, scoring a goal at Wembley in 1973 in Italy's first ever win in England. As a manager, Capello's fierce determination has seen him win championships - nine of them in 16 years - with every club he has taken charge of, from the great Milan team he helped create in the early 1990s to Real Madrid with David Beckham in 2007. 
 
Now he faces his greatest challenge yet, the challenge that he has said is his long-cherished dream, and the last of his glittering coaching career. To restore England to the top of the world football tree, to take his adopted country to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, and to win it. For Capello, nothing less than the best will do. For England, it is win or bust. And you don't want to lose under Capello. 
 
In this, the first ever biography of the new England manager, award-winning writer Gabriele Marcotti travels from Capello's early days in Italy to his first months in his new job at Soho Square to tell the story of the man behind the steely glare, the method behind the sometimes manic behaviour. Capello's drive for success at any cost has seen him make more than a few enemies over the years, and Marcotti has talked to them all, as well as his closest associates. No-one has ever got this close to Capello before, and this is the story not just of a remarkable career, but of the life of a truly extraordinary man.

Capello

The Man Behind England's World Cup Dream

Howard Reid

On 6 April 1943, Ian Reid, an officer in the Black Watch, was wounded and captured in Tunisia and sent off to an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. Five months later, when the Germans took over the camp as the Italians pulled out of the war, he escaped. So began a life-or-death game of hide and seek in the heart of the beautiful Italian countryside, living in barns, sleeping in ditches and desperate scavenging for food. He was recaptured - though heroically he was to escape from the Germans a total of five times. 
 
Nearly sixty years later, Howard Reid quite literally followed in his father's footsteps and made the same journey across Italy - though in a rather more relaxed fashion. Starting near Modena, he travelled to Florence and through Chianti, Siena and Orvieto to Rome and beyond, painting an intimate portrait of his extraordinary father and getting closer to the truth of his amazing escapades, which were the subject of a bestselling book in the 1950s. 
 
Along the way, as we are shown the real, modern Italy, Howard mused on father-son relationships, and the deep but invisible scars left by two world wars on each of our personal histories. This poignant and engrossing book is a must for everyone who has ever asked (or wanted, too late, to ask) the question 'What did you do in the war, Dad?'

Dad's War

Anthony Bourke

John Rendall

In 2008, a YouTube clip became an internet phenomenon. It showed the emotional reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa to be introduced into his rightful home in the wild. 
 
Anthony 'Ace' Bourke and John Rendall visited London from Australia in 1969 and bought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods. But Christian soon grew from cuddly cub to King of the Kings Road in London, and the only way to avoid him being incarcerated in a zoo was to place him under the expert care of George Adamson in Kenya. Ace and John did not return to see their lion for a year. 
 
A Lion Called Christian tells their touching story, accompanied by stunning photographs. It's a unique and extraordinary tale of its time that resonates again today with a worldwide audience, thanks to the internet age, and is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature.

A Lion Called Christian

Christopher Fowler

Christopher Fowler's memoir captures life in suburban London as it has rarely been seen: through the eyes of a lonely boy who spends his days between the library and the cinema, devouring novels, comics, cereal packets - anything that might reveal a story. 
Caught between an ever-sensible but exhausted mother and a DIY-obsessed father fighting his own demons, Christopher takes refuge in words. His parents try to understand their son's peculiar obsessions, but fast lose patience with him - and each other. The war of nerves escalates to include every member of the Fowler family, and something has to give, but does it mean that a boy must always give up his dreams for the tough lessons of real life? 
Beautifully written, this rich and astute evocation of a time and a place recalls a childhood at once entertainingly eccentric and endearingly ordinary.

Paperboy

Roy Brindley

Roy Brindley has earned over a million pounds, has a contented family life, owns an incredible house and both a Porsche and a Ferrari. But he's not always had money to play with. In fact, he hasn't always had a home. 
 
Addicted to gambling like the majority of his family, Roy spent his teens and twenties in the bookies and, week in, week out, frittered away his entire pay packet as he attempted to chase his losses. By the time he was twenty-eight he was on the run from the police and living out of a cardboard box in Southsea. In 2002 he finally ended up in court and decided to turn his life around. After a chance viewing of the Hollywood poker film Rounders, he at last put his phenomenal mathematical talent to constructive use, and his domination of the European poker circuit began. 
 
From his dysfunctional early years, through a career as a greyhound trainer and journalist before playing cards for cash became his vocation, the story of Roy the Boy is both an inspirational rags-to-riches story of a man who learnt to trust something other than lady luck, and a fascinating insight into the glamorous, celebrity-filled and ever-more-popular world of poker.

Life's a Gamble

The High Stakes and Low Life of a Poker Professional

A J Baime

Coming to cinemas in November 2019, under the title LE MANS '66 
____________________ 
 
In the 1960s Enzo Ferrari emerged as the dominant force in sports cars in the world, creating speed machines that were unbeatable on the race track. In America, the Ford Motor Company was quickly losing ground as the pre-eminent brand. Henry Ford II saw a solution. He decided to declare war on Ferrari, to build a faster car than anything Ferrari had brought to the track, and to beat him at the world's biggest race, Le Mans. Ferrari was just as determined to see off this challenge from across the Atlantic. 
 
With practically no safety regulations in place in the European Grand Prix races, horrific accidents were routine, with both drivers and spectators killed in many races. The stakes were incredibly high, money and men were thrown at the competition, neither Ford or Ferrari would accept anything but victory. The battle to become the fastest in the world truly became a race to the death.

Go Like Hell

Ford, Ferrari and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans

Anne Thomas Soffee

SNAKE HIPS follows an Arab-American woman's life as she shimmies her way from getting dumped by her tattoo-artist boyfriend to coming to grips with being single, ample, and 30. Her heart broken, Soffee moves back home to wallow in self-pity. There she comes across a flier advertising the usual classes in yoga, vegetarian cookery, ballet and...belly dancing. Against the wishes of her extended family and friends, she enrols, hoping to heal her heart and reconnect with her Lebanese roots. 
 
Soffee soon discovers that her life will never be the same after she enters the riotous world of belly dancing, a warm and welcoming subculture where younger and thinner are not necessarily better. Soffee's ethnic high leads to Princess Jasmine fantasies - for example, being 'third-favourite wife' to a sheik she is cyber-dating, a perfect relationship until she realizes that being obedient is easier online. Then she falls for a beautiful Lebanese boy-next-door. Among the zils (finger cymbals) and thrills of performing in moose lodges and county fairs, Soffee is surprised to find happiness and true love along the way.

Snake Hips

Jack Perkowski

After a highly successful career on Wall Street, in the early 1990s Jack Perkowski needed a new challenge. Having decided that China would be the future, he set about investigating this little-known market and the business opportunities it offered. Before long, Jack set up ASIMCO, a manufacturing business specializing in car components, which now has an annual turnover of over $500 million. 
 
In Managing the Dragon Jack provides an insider's view of China, its many peculiarities and working practices. For example, we see how China's economy and government are highly decentralized and how the country tends to operate like a series of villages spread across a vast landscape; we discover how much influence 'the Party' has on the banks, and how economic incentives at local government level causes China to create overcapacity in virtually every industry. This may explain why the country has, almost single-handedly, placed the entire world in a cost / price squeeze. 
 
Managing the Dragon is a revealing and thought-provoking memoir offering a fresh perspective on a country at the dawn of a new age. Through its colourful narrative it also tells the story of one of the most influential and pioneering entrepreneurs of today.

Managing the Dragon

Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China

Ron Haslam

Leon Haslam

'Rocket' Ron Haslam started racing on the professional circuit in 1972 at the age of 15 and developed into one of the finest, and fastest, racers the UK has ever seen. Winner of three World titles and four British championships, as well as a record six Macau GPs, he rode in more than 100 Grands Prix. Despite tragically losing two of his brothers in motorbike accidents, Haslam kept on riding, setting speed records wherever he went. 
 
His son, Leon, the 'Pocket Rocket', is following in his father's extremely speedy footsteps. A national Motorcross champion and national Scooter champion at the age of just 14, he became the youngest ever rider to compete in the 500cc World Championship and is now one of Britain's top racers, competing for Stiggy Honda in the World Superbike Championship. 
 
This is the extraordinary story of a father and a son who are addicted to motorbikes, with all the thrills and spills, miraculous escapes and multiple broken bones that involves. Both colourful characters, their story takes us all the way from the 1970s to today and is full of hilarious high-octane derring-do, a cast of characters including legends like Fast Freddie Spencer and Barry Sheene, and nothing less than terrifying but exhilarating adventure.

Rocket Men

Jonathan Ross

THE SUDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
The laugh-out-loud funny memoir and book of anecdotes about his life and loves from the nation’s favourite ‘Big Dog’ celebrity Traitor! 
 
Why is catalogue shopping responsible for Jonathan Ross's inimitable sense of style? 
 
Why does Jonathan wince every time he sees a Hoover? 
 
And why did he fall in love with a deep-sea diver? 
 
Why? Because this is Jonathan Ross. And nothing is out of bounds when it comes to talking about life as he knows it. 
 
Sharply observed, laugh-out-loud funny, and completely outrageous, Why Do I Say These Things sees Jonathan talk about everything from sex and pugs to rock 'n' roll and genital warts, as only he can. 
 
From boyhood to adult life, this is Jonathan Ross at his wicked and witty best.

Why Do I Say These Things?

Antony Worrall Thompson

Antony Worrall Thompson's passage to culinary stardom has not exactly been smooth. Abandoned by his father, a Shakespearean actor, when he was just three, Antony was sexually abused and maltreated throughout his childhood. 
 
Antony's story very nearly came to an abrupt halt at sixteen when his face was crushed in a horrific rugby accident, which left him badly disfigured and chronically insecure. But pioneering surgery saved the day, enabling him to pursue what was to become the enduring love of his life - cooking. 
 
After much hard graft and some close encounters of the violent gangster kind, AWT's flamboyant style as a restaurateur soon bought him to the attention of cookery's cognoscenti and today Antony is to the culinary establishment what a bull is to a china shop. His no-nonsense style in the kitchen is loathed by a few, but loved by millions. 
 
Stuffed with hugely entertaining anecdotes and lightly sprinkled with AWT's no-holds-barred opinions, RAW is a heartrendingly honest story of triumph over adversity. Along the way we go behind the scenes with the foodie mafia and Antony lifts the lid on a few triple-Michelin-starred scandals. The knives (and the forks!) are very definitely out ...

My Autobiography

Peter Woolf

'For almost all my life, I've been the person you crossed the street to avoid...' 
 
Peter Woolf's life of drinking, drug-taking and thieving had begun before most people leave school. Spending most of his adult life in prison made no difference to him: life itself offered him no hope. Today, amazingly, Peter is clean and has not reoffended since a life-changing meeting in 2002 when he came face to face with some of his victims. 
 
The Damage Done is a searingly honest and gritty portrayal of a man ensconced in an endless cycle of drugs, violence, prison and depravity who, one Tuesday afternoon in a glass room at Pentonville prison, was forced to confront all that he had destroyed.

The Damage Done

E P F Lynch

'It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying...' 
Edward Lynch enlisted when he was just 18 - one of thousands of fresh-faced men who were proudly waved off by the crowds as they embarked for France. It was 1916 and the majority had no idea of the reality of the Somme trenches, of the traumatised soldiers they would encounter there, of the innumerable, awful contradictions of war. Private Lynch was one of those who survived, and on his return home, wrote Somme Mud in pencil in over 20 school exercise books, perhaps in the hope of coming to terms with all that he had witnessed there? 
Written from the perspective of an ordinary 'Tommy' and told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the human spirit: for out of the mud that threatened to suck out a man's soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship. 
For all who are marking the centenary of the Great War, it is a rare and precious find.

Somme Mud

T.J. English

Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared. Out of a partnership between two sadistic thugs - James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone - the gang dominated the decaying slice of New York City's West Side known as Hell's Kitchen in the 1970s and '80s. Excelling in extortion, numbers running, loansharking and drug-peddling, they became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime. The then prosecutor Rudolf Giuliani called them 'the most savage organisation in the long history of New York street gangs'. Upping the ante on brutality and depravity, their speciality when it came to punishment and killings was dismemberment. Their reign lasted almost twenty - their end would come as their own violent natures got the best of them and precipitated a downfall as infamous as their rise. This revised and updated edition, brings the story of the Westies up to date with 'where are they now' snapshots of the men - and women - of the Westies.

The Westies

Inside New York's Irish Mob

Jay Kopelman

Melinda Roth

When Marines enter an abandoned house in Fallujah, Iraq, and hear a suspicious noise, they clench their weapons, edge around a corner, and prepare to open fire. 
 
What they find during the US-led attack on the 'most dangerous city on Earth', however, is not an insurgent bent on revenge, but a tiny puppy left behind when most of the city's population fled before the bombing. Despite military law that forbids the keeping of pets, the Marines de-flea the pup with kerosene, de-worm him with chewing tobacco, and fill him up on Meals Ready to Eat. Thus begins the dramatic rescue attempt of a dog named Lava and Lava's rescue of at least one Marine, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman, from the emotional ravages of war. 
 
From hardened Marines to wartime journalists to endangered Iraqi citizens, From Baghdad, With Love tells an unforgettable story of an unlikely band of heroes who learn unexpected lessons about life, death, and war from a mangy flea-ridden refugee.

From Baghdad, With Love

Jean Sasson

Bestselling author Jean Sasson tells the dramatic true story of a young woman caught up in Saddam Hussein's genocide of the Kurdish people of Iraq. 
 
One morning Joanna, a young bride living in the Kurdish mountains of Iraq, was surprised to see dead birds drop silently out of the clear sky. They were followed by sinister canisters falling to the ground, bringing fear and death. 
 
It was 1987, and Saddam Hussein had ordered his cousin 'Chemical Ali' to bombard Joanna's village, Bergalou, with chemical weapons. Temporarily blinded in the attack, Joanna was rescued by her husband, a Kurdish freedom fighter. After being caught in another bombardment and left for dead in the rubble, they managed to flee over the mountains in a harrowing escape. 
 
Now living in the UK and working for British Airways, Joanna has told the story of her eventful life to Jean Sasson, the bestselling chronicler of oppressed women's lives in the Princess trilogy and Mayada. Love in a Torn Land is published while the world watches the trial of the notorious 'Chemical Ali', Saddam Hussein's most bloodthirsty henchman, for crimes including the genocide of the Kurdish people.

Love In A Torn Land

Jackie Ellis

This journey through the changing seasons at Rowfoot Farm - tupping time in the autumn, winters as wet, bleak and cold here in Cumbria as elsewhere, lambing and the glories of spring, a bucolic, bee-filled Eden Valley summer with its many shows and fairs - will reveal much that you need to know about the countryside, its quirky customs and ways, and most likely a great deal that you don't. They no longer burn witches (not because they're lily-livered, it's just that getting the necessary timber from sustainable forests is a real chore). You'll find nothing here about welly-wanging either. Jackie doesn't wang her wellies, she just gets them muddy. You won't need to, of course, as this book will ensure you experience rural life vicariously and very cleanly. 
 
Along the way, Jackie bumps into friends old and new, peeps back over her shoulder every now and then to recall times past, oh and it wouldn't be her if she didn't have the occasional impassioned rant or take the odd pop at the establishment, but rest assured she's quite gentle with them. 
So join Jackie (and Katie the Lurcher, Blossom the Cob and Rowfoot's many other residents, four- and two-legged) as she recounts the occasional pitfall and many pleasures of running a small farm in one of the most beautiful parts of England.

Sheepwrecked

Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard is a hero to millions, not only as the inspirational captain of Liverpool FC, but as a key member of the England team. Here, for the first time, he tells the story of his lifelong obsession with football, in an honest and revealing book which captures the extraordinary camaraderie, the soul-destroying tensions and the high-octane thrills of the modern game as never before. 
 
Born in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton in 1980, Steven first joined Liverpool as a YTS trainee and played his first game for the first team aged just 18. His career has gone from strength to strength ever since and he is now the team's captain and its lynchpin. Liverpool's incredible comeback in the Champions' League final in Istanbul in May 2005, recovering from a 3-goal deficit against AC Milan to win on penalties, is testament to the amazing power Gerrard has over his team. His presence on the pitch is a force to be reckoned with and places him amongst the very first rank of players in the world. 
 
A relatively private figure, Steven has rarely spoken out in public. Now, his legions of fans will be allowed an intimate glimpse of what makes their hero tick. He speaks for the first time about the torturous will-he-won't-he Chelsea rumours and his undying passion for Liverpool. We experience first-hand the highs of winning in Istanbul and elsewhere, as well as the occasional lows of being parted from his much-loved family and friends. And of course, the book contains a full blow-by-blow account of England's world cup campaign in Germany 2006. 
 
Steven Gerrard's book is the definitive football autobiography. Like its subject, it's honest, passionate and exhilarating. If Steven Gerrard isn't your hero yet, by the time you've read this he will be...

Gerrard

John Man

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure dome decree 
 
Kublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe. He inherited the second largest land empire in history from his grandfather, Genghis Khan. He promptly set about extending this into the biggest empire the world has ever seen, extending his rule from China to Iraq, from Siberia to Afghanistan. His personal domain covered sixty-percent of all Asia, and one-fifth of the world's land area. 
 
The West first learnt of this great Khan through the reports of Marco Polo. Kublai had not been born to rule, but had clawed his way to leadership, achieving power only in his 40s. He had inherited Genghis Khan's great dream of world domination. But unlike his grandfather he saw China and not Mongolia as the key to controlling power and turned Genghis' unwieldy empire into a federation. Using China's great wealth, coupled with his shrewd and subtle government, he created an empire that was the greatest since the fall of Rome, and shaped the modern world as we know it today. He gave China its modern-day borders and his legacy is that country's resurgence, and the superpower China of tomorrow.

Kublai Khan

Jacqueline O'Brien

Ivor Herbert

Vincent O'Brien is a horse-racing legend. Recently voted horse racing's 'greatest of all time', ahead of familiar names like Lester Piggott, the Queen Mother and Sheikh Mohammed, O'Brien won every race that matters in Britain and Ireland over his fifty-year career and is without doubt the best and most versatile racehorse trainer the sport has ever known. 
 
O'Brien is the only man to have trained three consecutive Grand National winners. He won three consecutive Gold Cups and three consecutive Champion Hurdles. He has had extraordinary success in flat racing too - six Derby winners, three winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, three King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winners and twenty-five races at Royal Ascot. He trained some of the best-known racehorses in the history of the sport - including Nijinsky, winner of the Triple Crown in 1970. 
 
His life has been a fascinating one. From humble beginnings in County Cork, he chose to train racehorses as his career - much to the benefit of the sport - and went on to create the legendary Ballydoyle Stables. Here his extraordinary story is told by his wife, Jacqueline, and distinguished racing writer Ivor Herbert. Lavishly illustrated with her personal and public photographs that span his amazing life, this book is a must for anyone with an interest in horses or racing.

Vincent O'Brien - The Official Biography

Stacy Horn

There is no statute of limitations on murder. It is one crime you pay for - but first you must be caught. And in New York City, thousands of murders remain unsolved... 
It was while working as a volunteer post 9/11 that New York-based writer and broadcaster Stacy Horn first learned of the existence of the NYPD's 'Cold Case and Apprehension Squad'. This small but elite unit has but a single purpose: to pursue murder cases that have, for whatever reason - the passage of time, lack of evidence, loss of investigative momentum - gone 'cold'. These are the deaths that have been forgotten, that languish in dusty filing cabinets in precinct HQ basements, some dating back over fifty years. The Cold Case team's job is to reach into the past and rescue the victims from oblivion, to answer the questions 'who were they?', 'what happened to them?' and 'who did this to them?', to lay their ghosts to rest. Theirs is the world that inspires and informs television series such as CSI and Waking the Dead. 
Given unprecedented access to the Squad, Stacy Horn worked alongside the talented, indefatigable, sometimes ill-at-ease and all-too human detectives as they investigate four cases from inception to resolution. An enthralling chronicle of the two years she spent with the team, The Restless Sleep is both a compelling insider's view of a real-life subculture of crime solving - from its tangled history, the politics and bureaucracy to the science, the emotional and physical toll, and the lucky breaks - and a singular exploration of human nature itself.

The Restless Sleep

Joshua M Greene

'The soundtrack of [Harrison's] spiritual journey begins with the explosions of battle and ends, fifty-eight years later with the harmonies of eternal peace. And like all good stories, this one starts when the hero was just a child.' 
 
In Here Comes the Sun Joshua Greene sheds new light on the most mysterious of the Beatles, George Harrison, and provides a unique portrait of the man through his music and his spiritual quest. 
 
As Greene looks back at Harrison's early life and the years he spent growing up in an impoverished, post-war Liverpool, he follows the path taken by the quietly rebellious teenage, the experiences and friendships that helped to shape his destiny and, of course, explores Harrison's rollercoaster ride to fame as a member of the legendary Beatles. He also draws on scores of previously unpublished transcripts of recorded conversations, first-hand accounts and fresh anecdotes about Harrison and other musical greats such as Dylan and Presley. 
 
Poignant, insightful, and written with an immediacy that captures the very essence of the 'quiet one', Here Comes the Sun gives us an unprecedented close-up of Harrison's often underrated contribution to the Beatles' legacy, and his spiritual awakening through Indian music, mysticism and meditation.

Here Comes The Sun

William Ash

Determined to take on the Nazis, Texan Bill Ash joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1939 and in so doing sacrificed his citizenship. Before long, he was sent to England wherehe flew Spitfires. Shot down over France in March 1942, he survived the crash-landing and, thanks to local civilians, evaded capture for months only to be betrayed to the Gestapo in Paris. Tortured and sentenced to death as a spy, he was saved from the firing squad by the Luftwaffe who sent him to the infamous 'Great Escape' POW camp, Stalag Luft III. It was from there that Bill began his 'tour' of Occupied Europe. Breaking out of a succession of camps, he became one of only a handful of serial escape artists to attempt more than a dozen break-outs - over the wire, under it in tunnels, through it with cutters or simply strolling out of the camp gates in disguise! They were years of extraordinary hardship, frustration and brutality - the penalty for escaping was a long spell in solitary - but throughout it all Bill Ash displayed not just remarkable courage but also an anarchic sense of humour, great humanity and an unstoppable desire for freedom. 
Honest, funny and exciting, Under the Wire is both a riveting war memoir and a tribute to the bravery and resolve of an entire generation.

Under The Wire

Na'ima B Robert

Covered from head to toe with only her eyes visible, the sight of a Muslim woman on a western city street rarely fails to provoke a strong reaction. Feelings of shock, horror, repulsion, pity or even fear are not uncommon. But have you ever wondered who it is behind the veil and what makes her tick? Ever wondered what her life is really like and whether her dreams, hopes and aspirations differ from yours? From My Sisters' Lips offers a rare glimpse into the lives of a community of women, most of whom are converts to Islam, and invites you to share their joys, sorrows, convictions and faith. 
 
When Na'ima B Robert abandoned her western lifestyle and embraced Islam six years ago, it was not a decision taken lightly. Yet soon after she took her first tentative steps towards covering, she felt empowered; no longer judged on physical appearances alone, no longer seeking the approval to feel beautiful - or using her looks to wield power over men - the experience effected her greatly. Before long she grew in confidence and courage. As she says, 'Something just clicked. I thought, "Good, don't look; don't compare me with your latest squeeze, don't try and guess my measurements - my body is my own business!"' 
From My Sisters' Lips offers a glimpse into the lives of just some of the extraordinary women who, like herself, have chosen to live behind the veil. What emerges is a vivid and intimate portrait of a sisterhood; as they speak candidly and with conviction on a diverse range of subjects ranging from marriage to motherhood, stereotypes, submission and self-image, we hear the strong, proud voices of those who are seldom heard.

From My Sisters' Lips

Wendy Moore

WINNER OF THE MEDICAL JOURNALISTS' OPEN BOOK AWARD 2005 
 
Revered and feared in equal measure, John Hunter was the most famous surgeon of eighteenth-century London. Rich or poor, aristocrat or human freak, suffering Georgians knew that Hunter's skills might well save their lives &shy;but if he failed, their corpses could end up on his dissecting table, their bones and organs destined for display in his remarkable, macabre museum. 
 
Maverick medical pioneer, adored teacher, brilliant naturalist, Hunter was a key figure of the Enlightenment who transformed surgery, advanced biological understanding and even anticipated the evolutionary theories of Darwin. He provided inspiration both for Dr Jekyll and Dr Dolittle. But the extremes to which he went to pursue his scientific mission raised question marks then as now. 
 
John Hunter's extraordinary world comes to life in this remarkable, award-winning biography written by a wonderful new talent.

The Knife Man

Paul Reizin

Paul Reizin is living proof that it is possible to find happiness through the lonely hearts column in a newspaper. So is his wife. And their baby. 
Date Expectations tells the hilarious true story of some of the most disastrous dates in the history of courtship, as Paul sets out on an increasingly fraught quest to leave singledom behind ... These include the date with the psycho hippy nutter; the date who didn't turn up; the world's shortest date; and the date with a face like a bag of spanners. 
Learn to interpret the secret language of the lonely hearts columns (e.g. 'bubbly' = fat). Learn how to read between the lines of a recorded message - fine tune your radar for those tell-tale references to cats and anger-management classes. And much, much more ... 
Remember - blind dating is like life. By the time you've learned how to do it properly, you no longer need to . . .

Date Expectations

Bill McLaren

Just before the start of the 2002 Wales v Scotland match in Cardiff, the stadium announcer asked people to stand and acknowledge Bill McLaren's great contribution to the sport. The whole ground rose, leaving McLaren choking back the tears. Then came a voice in his ear: 'Cue, Bill...' 
 
Coping with his emotions on that day was obviously not straightforward, even for a commentator of Bill McLaren's experience, used to being caught up in some of the most dramatic moments rugby has ever seen. But Bill also talks frankly about the greatest tragedy of his life: the death of his younger daughter from cancer at 46, the three years of agony and the trauma of her final day. Bill wanted to stay at her bedside but she insisted he go and carry out a commentating duty in Edinburgh on the Saturday afternoon. He did so, rushed back to the hospital, but she had died that afternoon while he was on air. 
 
McLaren, himself, had almost died of TB in his youth and he tells of the days and nights when he hid under the sheets in bed at the Scottish hospital where he was kept for 19 months, 'crying myself to sleep each night as they took away my friends who had died that day. I was certain I would be next'. He has excellent memories of his war years and delves deep to recall some harrowing times as a forward observation spotter when he came within inches of being killed by a German sniper. Later, he also remembers leading his men one day into a small northern Italian town where they discovered 1500 corpses piled up in the square. 'That was the day I became a man, rather quickly,' he says. He was 21. 
 
As well reliving the highlights of his illustrious career as a commentator, Bill talks of the game today and his regrets that rugby went professional. He is a fierce critic of what this has led to and fears for the future health and safety of rugby players because he regards the modern game as dangerously physical. His story amounts to a history of the game itself and reaffirms McLaren's status as something of a global treasure.

Muhammad Ali

Hana Yasmeen Ali

In this poignant, moving book, Muhammad Ali shares the beliefs he has come to live by and which he has passed on to his children. Some of the wisdom is his own; some comes from the teachings of true Islam, from his spiritual studies, and from people he has met in the course of his extraordinary life. Here, as he recalls his early days as a young warrior in Louisville, Kentucky, and his meteoric rise to fame as Heavyweight Champion of the World, a title he won three times, he tells of the many battles he won and lost, both inside and outside the ring and his conversion to Islam in the 1960s. Now, working tirelessly as a worldwide ambassador for peace, he talks of the damage caused when religion is used to tear people apart, the essential need for unity in this troubled world, and how his faith sustains him on this, the most important journey of his life - the journey to forgiveness and peace. Together with his daughter Hana, in this timely spiritual memoir Ali draws upon his rich reserve of notes, tapes and journals, and writes with compassion, warmth and, of course, humour on how we can liberate mind, body and spirit when we pursue and embrace the one essential truth - love.

The Soul Of A Butterfly

Souad

When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family and was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the family's clothes, he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. 
 
In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a 'crime of honour' was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year and many more take place that we hear nothing about. 
 
Miraculously, Souad survived rescued by the women of her village, who put out the flames and took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned, and abandoned by her family and community, it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed and to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. 
 
Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage and fortitude and of one woman's determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices and which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence.

Burned Alive

Martin Booth

Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing the book that would be his epitaph - this wonderfully remembered, beautifully told memoir of a childhood lived to the full in a far-flung outpost of the British Empire... 
 
An inquisitive seven-year-old, Martin Booth found himself with the whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he had free access to hidden corners of the colony normally closed to a Gweilo, a 'pale fellow' like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learnt Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in colourful festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered into the secret lair of the Triads and visited an opium den. Along the way he encountered a colourful array of people, from the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, a drunken child molester, and the Queen of Kowloon, the crazed tramp who may have been a member of the Romanov family. 
 
Shadowed by the unhappiness of his warring parents, a broad-minded mother who, like her son, was keen to embrace all things Chinese, and a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in 'going native', Martin Booth's compelling memoir is a journey into Chinese culture and an extinct colonial way of life that glows with infectious curiosity and humour.

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