Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Andrew Gimson

THE NEWLY REVISED EDITION 
 
Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens is the most entertaining and instructive book on the English monarchy you will ever read. 
 
For lovers of history, the experienced and the novice, the serious and the silly. 
 
Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens whirls us through the lives of our monarchs &ndash; from 1066 and William the Conqueror right up to Queen Elizabeth II and the present-day &ndash; to tell a tale of bastardy, courage, conquest, brutality, vanity, vulgarity, corruption, anarchy, absenteeism, piety, nobility, divorce, execution, civil war, madness, magnificence, profligacy, frugality, philately, abdication, dutifulness, family breakdown and family recovery. 
 
Written in Andrew Gimson&rsquo;s inimitable style, and illustrated by Martin Rowson, Gimson&rsquo;s Kings and Queens is both a primer and a refresher for anyone who can't quite remember which were the good and bad Edwards or Henrys, or why so-and-so succeeded to the throne rather than his second cousin.

Gimson’s Kings and Queens

Brief Lives of the Forty Monarchs since 1066

Rao Pingru

A graphic memoir like no other: the true story of a marriage in China that spanned the twentieth century, told in vibrant, original paintings and prose. 
 
WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD 
 
Rao Pingru was a twenty-six-year-old soldier when he first saw the beautiful Mao Meitang. One glimpse of her through a window as she put on lipstick was enough to capture Pingru’s heart. It was a moment that sparked a union that would last almost sixty years. 
 
But when Meitang passed away in 2008, Pingru realised that their marriage and all the small moments and memories of a life together, would be lost to history. And so at the age of eighty-eight, in an outpouring of love and grief, Pingru began to paint. 
 
Our Story is a memorial to Pingru and Meitang’s epic romance, told through Pingru’s exquisitely detailed paintings and handwritten notes. We see Pingru and Meitang through the decades, through both poverty and good fortune, and as they grow so too does China: the nation undergoing political turmoil and seismic cultural change. 
 
A tale both tragic and inspiring, of enduring love and simple values, Our Story is an old-fashioned romance that unfolds within the rush of a rapidly changing nation. A love letter, a work of folk art and a historical testament, Our Story is a truly unique graphic memoir. 
 
'A beautifully warm, personal, human story of life, love and family' Forbidden Planet

Our Story

A Memoir of Love and Life in China

Martin Rowson

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
A concise, sharp-witted and illuminating account of the lives of Britain’s prime ministers from Walpole to May, illustrated by Martin Rowson. 
 
For the reader who has heard of such giants as Gladstone and Disraeli, and has drunk in a pub called the Palmerston, but has only the haziest idea of who these people were, Gimson’s Prime Ministers offers a short account of them all which can be read for pleasure, and not just for edification. With Gimson’s wonderful prose once again complemented by Martin Rowson’s inimitable illustrations, this lively and entertaining aide-memoire and work of satirical genius brings our parliamentary history to life as never before. 
 
PRAISE FOR GIMSON'S PRIME MINISTERS: 
 
'The most engaging and insightful account of PMs to have been published' Arthur Seldon, Standpoint 
'Learned witty and wise, and splendidly illustrated' Tibor Fischer 
'Hugely enjoyable' Tom Holland 
 
Gimson's Kings and Queens is also available.

Gimson's Prime Ministers

Brief Lives from Walpole to Johnson

Olivia Swarthout

Live, laugh love and die in the Middle Ages with Weird Medieval Guys! 
 
Explore what your medieval life would have been through a choose-your-own-adventure full of quizzes, how-to guides, diagrams and flow charts that takes you from your birth to your gruesome end, revealing your patron saint, the fate of your love life and the trials and tribulations you faced along the way. 
 
Then, discover everything you need to know to survive the natural world, from stripping naked to survive a wolf attack, decoding the signficance of birds visiting your sickbed and brewing love potions all while learning about warring rabbits, deadly dragons and saintly hounds - all illustrated with the very best ancient drawings of beasts, birds, fishes and serpents from all four corners of God's creation, drawn by people who definitely saw these creatures with their very own eyes and lived to tell the tale. 
 
Chock full of hilarious, mad and bad advice for surviving and thriving on the mortal plane, this complete guide to life in the dark ages is guaranteed to make you laugh.

Weird Medieval Guys

How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times

Amelia Possanza

Charting the stories of Olympic athletes and lesbian memoirists, via Sappho, Lesbian Love Story is a genre-defying respository of sapphic romance like no other. 
 
On her quest to discovering lesbian role models overlooked by history, Amelia Possanza uncovers seven incredible love stories in the archives. Expertly blending her subjects' own words with richly imagined and vigorously researched moments from their lives to tell their stories in an intimate, vivid and immediate way, Possanza weaves these narratives together with her own memories of uncovering the past, yearning and longing alongside her subjects and growing into her queerness. 
 
This is a celebration of sapphics - of women who love women - but also of people who have always existed outside of traditional definitions of gender and bravely lived beyond the confines of heteronormativity. Each of the lesbians in this memoir moved through the world in their own way and helped the world. Their stories illuminate a forgotten history, as well as showing us all a new way to understand what love means when there is nothing material to be gained.

Lesbian Love Story

A Queer History of Sapphic Romance

Joshua Bennett

The powerful story of an art form that has transformed the cultural landscape, by one of its most influential practitioners: an award-winning poet, professor and slam champion. 
 
In 2009, at only twenty years old, Joshua Bennett was invited to recite a poem for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House's Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word. Spike Lee and Saul Williams were in the audience, and it turned out to be the very same event where Lin-Manuel Miranda first performed a work-in-progress that revolutionised musical theatre - Hamilton. 
 
With passion, wit and erudition, in Spoken Word Bennett takes us on his own electrifying coming-of-age journey as a writer, alongside the rise of spoken-word poetry and its origins in America. Blending memories of his personal encounters with influential figures, his path to becoming an award-winning poet and his academic insight into the history that shaped the scene, he tells the story of how a handful of visionaries created spaces for underrepresented artists to experiment with new forms of art. 
 
Taking us back to the early days of spoken-word poetry through to Amanda Gorman, Common, Jill Scott, Dave Chappelle, DMX and Kanye West reciting their original poems on television, Bennett shows how a few passionate artists sparked a movement that forever changed the world.

Spoken Word

The Story of How Performance Poetry Changed the World

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