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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David Hughes

In one spring month of 1856 Archibald Campbell Tait (later to be Archbishop of Canterbury) and his wife Catharine suffered the loss of five daughters, aged between two and ten, in an epidemic of scarlet fever. In his diary Tait refers to these beloved children as 'the lent jewels'. The couple bore their bereavement with a fortitude that could be sustained only by faith. Without similar convictions, but in the hope of laying bare a comparable belief for himself, David Hughes explores the themes of love and loss, intermingling his own experience, both as child and father, with the story of another of Tait's contemporaries, someone with a different but nonetheless powerful focus on life, a man known only as 'Walter', author of the erotic memoir My Secret Life. At the same time Catharine was drowning her grief in words by writing a heartbreaking account of her children's deaths. All these presences, and more modern ones, haunt the chapters of this many-layered documentary. With a dexterity of style and abundance of sympathy that have made him so appealing a writer, Hughes now delves into two centuries of underlying attitudes to sex, dreams and mortality, in an effort to reconcile them in his own daily life. The result of his sometimes sad but always eager search is splendidly uplifting.

The Lent Jewels

James Cracknell

Beverley Turner

Double Olympic gold-medal winner, James Cracknell. His story before and after his life-changing accident. 
 
In October 2011 James Cracknell, two-time Olympic gold-medal rower and one of the greatest endurance athletes the world has ever known, suffered a seizure at home as his young son looked on in horror. A man who had known no limits, a man who had practically achieved the impossible, was now struggling to master life's simple challenges. 
 
A year earlier, as James undertook yet another endurance challenge in Arizona, he was knocked off his bike by the wing mirror of a petrol tanker. It had smashed into the back of his head at high speed, causing severe frontal lobe damage. The doctors weren’t sure if he would recover and, if he did, whether he would ever be the same again. 
 
Touching Distance is an extraordinary, honest and powerful account as James and his wife Bev confront for the first time the lasting effects that the accident has had on their lives. It is the story of a marriage, of a family and of one man's fight back to be the best husband and father he can be.

Touching Distance

David Bellamy

David Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir is packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. He depicts wonderfully a childhood of discovery and adventure growing up in Carshalton during the second world war.  Despite rationing and evacuation, these were happy days of tremendous freedom spent roaming the wonderland of the surrounding countryside searching for bugs, beetles and bits of old shrapnel which young Bellamy and his brother would smuggle home to  their father's shed for their firework-making sessions. His growing love of nature is interwoven with loving, often hilarious, portraits of the various characters he meets along the way.   From his days as a student in fifties London to his trial by fire lectureship at Durham University with a young wife and ever-growing family to support, Bellamy reveals his many great loves from sports cars to ballet.  He also writes of his more serious concerns, with his reputation for being outspoken and undeterred in the face of big enterprises and corporations revealed in his battles and campaigns.

A Natural Life

Simon Carr

When Simon Carr's wife, Susie, tragically loses her battle with cancer, Simon is left to raise his five-year-old son, Alexander, on his own. Soon after, his eleven-year-old son from a previous marriage, Hugo, comes to live with them too. All too quickly, plumped-up cushions, crisp beds and a drifting scent of rosemary from the kitchen are replaced with a floor piled high with video-games, Lego® and comics. While visiting mothers deem his parenting 'semi-feral', Simon dryly retorts that his methods are simply 'free-range'.In this new all-male partnership, Simon faces the challenges of parenthood unaided, as father and sons alike learn to become a family again. 
 
Carr's emotionally honest, compellingly anarchic and sharply comic story of a single parent's struggle is at once heartbreaking and wonderfully life-affirming.

The Boys Are Back

Trevor Norton

This is the funny and touching story of a menagerie of eccentric and talented ecologists who, mainly as a hobby, spent forty summers at Lough Ine, a stunning marine lough in a corner of Ireland, where myths seep from the ground like will o' the wisps and, in one of the most unlikely projects in the history of science, were responsible for the reinvention of marine biology. Among the stars of the book are the marine creatures that occupy the lake: sea urchins that won't dine unless they wear a hat, otters that steal experiments, and worms that will only mate by order of the moon. The creatures' eccentric behaviour is matched only by that of the ecologists themselves, whose antics and interactions with their Irish neighbours are all lovingly described with Norton's keen eye for both the wonderful and the absurd. But for all its humour, the book is also a moving account of two ecologists who collaborated for forty years until their friendship came to a tragic end. The book brings together all the rich flavours of Ireland, the wonders of natural history and the magic of being a marine biologist just for the fun of it.

Reflections On A Summer Sea

James Watson

Along with Francis Crick, James Watson was the discoverer of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, realising both how it was able to reproduce itself and how, through its immense variety, it was able to pass on genetic instructions from one generation to the next. Their discovery paved the way for fifty years of explosive scientific achievement of extraordinary importance, both in strictly scientific terms and in its technological and social significance. 
 
From Dolly the sheep to GM foods to designer babies, science-related newspaper headlines have been dominated by the implications of their work. In DNA, now fully updated and revised to include new findings in gene editing, epigenetics and agricultural chemistry, as well as two entirely new chapters on personal genomics and cancer research, Watson tells the story of this pioneering research and its impact on the world in which we live, from its beginnings to the present day. This is the most comprehensive and authoritative exploration of DNA’s impact – practical, social, and ethical – on our society and our world.

The Story of the Genetic Revolution

Christina Schmid

A LOVE LOST. 
A LIFE CUT SHORT. 
 
'From the moment I set eyes on him I adored him. The connection between us was so strong it went beyond everything else. His job, my job, his lifestyle, my lifestyle. All that fell away.' 
 
And then one earth-shattering day Christina's worst nightmare came true when Oz was killed on his final day of duty before flying home to his family. 
 
This is Christina and Oz's story: a story about love and loss, hope and despair and of living in constant fear. Christina's extraordinary bravery and composure is an inspiration to anyone who has ever lost someone they love.

Always By My Side

Losing the love of my life and the fight to honour his memory

Jim Endersby

The triumphs of recent biology - understanding hereditary disease, the modern theory of evolution - are all thanks to the fruit fly, the guinea pig, the zebra fish and a handful of other organisms, which have helped us unravel one of life's greatest mysteries - inheritance. 
 
Jim Endersby traces his story from Darwin hand-pollinating passion flowers in his back garden in an effort to find out whether his decision to marry his cousin had harmed their children, to today's high-tech laboratories, full of shoals of shimmering zebra fish, whose bodies are transparent until they are mature, allowing scientists to watch every step as a single fertilised cell multiples to become millions of specialised cells that make up a new fish. Each story has - piece by piece - revealed how DNA determines the characteristics of the adult organism. Not every organism was as cooperative as the fruit fly or zebra fish, some provided scientists with misleading answers or encouraged them to ask the wrong questions.

A Guinea Pig's History Of Biology

The plants and animals who taught us the facts of life

Philippa Forrester

When TV presenter Philippa Forrester first met Charlie, a wildlife cameraman, she thought he was a show-off - and he thought she was arrogant. The second time, despite being hungry, thirsty and trapped in torrential rain aboard the world's most uncomfortable boat, they fell in love. 
 
This is the story of their move out of London, deep into the heart of the English countryside. When they impulsively buy an old mill-worker's cottage, they are entranced by its river, teeming with kingfishers, mink and water fowl. But they are overjoyed when they spot an animal long thought to have abandoned the area: an otter, swimming happily past their house. Inspired, they decide to make a film about the otters on their doorstep ... at the same time as having a baby, setting up house, and pursuing their careers. Unsurprisingly, things turn out to be easier said than done. 
 
Written with endless charm and real affection, featuring a cast of memorable characters, The River is packed with hilarious stories spanning floods, chicken keeping and wildlife watching. The result is sheer delight.

The River

A Love Story, a New Life in the Country, and One Idyllic Year With Otters

James Patterson

Cory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. But one fateful March morning in 1989, the course of Cory's life changed dramatically. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head; before long, overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. 
 
Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family were left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen-year struggle which took them beyond breaking point.

Torn Apart

The True Story of a Childhood Lost

This is the beautifully told tale of Norton's growing love of the sea, from family holidays in Whitley Bay as a boy, to his first over zealous attempts at diving. 
 
All that we know and love of the British seaside weaves throughout this funny, nostalgic and richly told memoir. Fortune telling gypsies found on crumbling promenades, lighthouses standing to attention, fishing villages giving way to arcades and brass bands and sand-playing in the bracing chill of a British summer. 
 
Throughout, Norton introduces us to a eclectic mix of sea-loving characters all of whom have helped to inform and shape his own journey to becoming a marine biologist. Like the early guides to the seashore by the Naturalist Philip Henry Gosse as much a part of the myth and history of the British coastline as fishermen's tales of mermaids and eerie monsters beneath the waves. 
 
This is both a history and a memoir of an enduring, if at times perplexing, love of the sea that won't fail to resonate with all who have felt the pull of the shores.

Underwater to Get out of the Rain

A Love Affair with the Sea

Chandler Burr

In the tradition of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and James Gleick's Genius, The Emperor of Scent tells the story of Luca Turin, an utterly unusual, stubborn scientist, his otherworldly gift for perfume, his brilliant, quixotic theory of how we smell, and his struggle to set before the world the secret of the most enigmatic of our senses.

The Emperor Of Scent

Dale Winton

For over 25 years, Dale Winton (1955-2018) was one of Britain's most popular stars. 
 
His warm and winning ways made him one of Britain's most popular and powerful personalities on TV, radio and with live audiences everywhere – but Dale's life was far from perfect. 
 
The story of his private life was traumatic and eventful, a tale of childhood insecurity, poverty and heartbreaking family tragedy – but also courage, commitment and strength. In this emotional, heartfelt book, Dale discusses the problems, the pain and the personalities of a life lived to the full in the mad world of showbusiness – as well as his plastic surgery, his lifelong battle with his weight, and the complicated truth about his sexuality. 
 
Rawest and most affecting is his honest account of his relationship with his parents, his bullying father who died on the day of Dale’s bar mitzvah – but particularly his close relationship with his troubled mother, whose struggle with depression ended with her taking her own life, her body found by Dale just days after his 21st birthday. 
 
With an eye to the future as well as his fascinating past, Dale Winton's autobiography will make compelling reading for millions, testament to the legacy of one of Britain's great entertainers.

My Story

Tyson Fury

AS SEEN ON NETFLIX'S AT HOME WITH THE FURYS 
 
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR 
 
** TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR ** 
DOUBLE WINNER: BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY &amp; BEST OVERALL SPORTS BOOK OF 2020 
 
________________________________ 
'Incredible stories... you don't have to be a boxing fan to enjoy it' SCOTT MILLS, BBC RADIO 1 
'One of sport's most heart-warming stories' SUNDAY TIMES, SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 
'A must-read for any boxing fan.' WORLD BOXING NEWS 
'If you know someone who is a fan of the People's Champion then they'll love this.' TALKSPORT XMAS GIFT GUIDE 
 
The extraordinary story of the rise and fall and rise again of Tyson Fury... 
 
THE GYPSY KING. 
 
A Manchester lad from Irish Traveller stock, born three months premature and weighing just a pound at birth, Tyson (named after his father's boxing hero) grew up to become one of the most unlikely heavyweight champions in history. This 'dream come true' soon turned to nightmare, however, as alcohol and cocaine abuse took hold and Tyson was stripped of his titles. What followed was the darkest moment of his life - detailed in this book for the first time - in which he came within seconds of ending everything. 
 
THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION. 
 
Like all the greatest stories, though, there is redemption and Tyson defies all the odds and literally drags himself to his feet. 10 million people around the globe watched Fury fight Wilder in the biggest fight of the boxing calendar. Speaking candidly about his struggles with mental health, this is Tyson Fury as you have never seen him before. 
 
A BRITISH ICON. 
________________________________ 
 
Behind the Mask is an unflinching story from the greatest boxer of our time and a man who has demonstrated strength of a very different kind by conquering his demons. 
________________________________ 
 
'It's a great book, if I could read, I'd buy it' BILLY JOE SAUNDERS, WBO World Super-Middleweight Champion 
 
'I didn't believe boxers could be role models, but Tyson Fury has changed my mind... This 30-year-old Mancunian has made us all think twice about the possibilities of redemption.' 
SIMON KELNER, INDEPENDENT 
 
'Tyson Fury has become Britain's most unlikely inspirational figure... the sight of a broken Fury caught a mood with the public. Never was the epithet &quot;People's Champion&quot; more apt' 
RON LEWIS, THE TIMES 
 
'Tyson Fury is an amazing real-life champion' SYLVESTER STALLONE, star of Rocky 
 
'You may not have any interest in boxing at all and you will find this story about Tyson's life fascinating' BBC RADIO 5 LIVE 
 
'An unusual, heartening story, nicely told. There is much to amaze and admire' SUNDAY TIMES

Behind the Mask

Winner of the Telegraph Sports Book of the Year

Janine Latus

In April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister Amy wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. 'If I am gone or dead', it read, 'question Ron'. 
 
By the time the letter was found, Amy was already missing. Helicopters and 'missing' posters went up and search dogs were sent out. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. Ron had been Amy's boyfriend. He is now in prison for her murder. 
 
Since childhood, Janine and Amy had been sexualised and belittled. As adults the sisters, trapped in a cycle of abuse, ended up in a series of violent relationships. Finally, Janine faced her demons and, with Amy's support, escaped in time. But Amy was keeping a terrible secret of her own ... 
 
Amy never escaped. She died in silent fear and pain. Janine has resolved to break that silence so that her sister didn't die in vain.

If I am Missing or Dead

Stephen Venables

Like the swallows, our son Ollie came in the spring and left in the autumn. Dancing, singing, swooping - there was something birdlike about his energy, joy and laughter - but also the fleeting, enigmatic quality of his life. 
 
When he was two he lost all his speech, as autism turned his life - and ours - into a baffling challenge. Then at four he had to face a new challenge when he almost died from leukaemia. But chemotherapy worked its magic and he made a full recovery. He was a tough survivor and nothing seemed to dim his spirit: he could light up a room and energize everyone around him. So it was a huge shock, after several cancer-free years, when a fatal brain tumour was discovered. This time his body had had enough and he died very suddenly. He was twelve. 
 
Ollie had extraordinary courage and endurance. Time after time he bounced back, determined to enjoy life. He was obstinate, mischievous, playful, flirtatious, quixotic, funny. He generated - and continues to generate - huge amounts of laughter. And he was very beautiful. We always felt that if autism had not unravelled the wiring of his neural pathways, he would have achieved extraordinary things. 
 
This is the story of the journey we made with Ollie. Unlike a mountaineer, pursuing extreme experiences out of choice, he had difficulty thrust upon him: he was forced to be brave. For me, too, the journey was far more compelling than any expedition.

Ollie

The True Story of a Brief and Courageous Life

Mark Wallington

The original Boogie, reluctant hero of the South West Peninsular Path, was the Mongrel from hell. Mark Wallington's New Boogie, like New Labour, appears a much trendier and more wholesome incarnation -until, that is, Mark gets him on the Pennine Way. This is the big one in every sense. Clearly Boogie will do fine -but will Mark be up to the task?

Pennine Walkies

Paul Bloom

Why is a forgery worth so much less than an original work of art?What's so funny about someone slipping on a banana peel? Why, as Freud once asked, is a man willing to kiss a woman passionately, but not use her toothbrush? And how many times should you baptize a two-headed twin? Descartes' Baby answers such questions, questions we may have never thought to ask about such uniquely human traits as art, humour, faith, disgust, and morality. 
 
In this thought-provoking and fascinating account of human nature, psychologist Paul Bloom contends that we all see the world in terms of bodies and souls. Even babies have a rich understanding of both the physical and social worlds. They expect objects to obey principles of physics, and they're startled when things disappear or defy gravity. They can read the emotions of adults and respond with their own feelings of anger, sympathy and joy. 
 
This perspective remains with us throughout our lives. Using his own researches and new ideas from philosophy, evolutionary biology, aesthetics, theology, and neuroscience, Bloom shows how this way to making sense of reality can explain what makes us human. The myriad ways that our childhood views of the world undergo development throughout our lives and profoundly influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions is the subject of this richly rewarding book.

Descartes' Baby

How Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human

Gary Fildes

A Bricklayer's Guide to the Galaxy . . . 
 
The inspirational memoir of a former brickie who followed his passion for the stars and built his own observatory. 
 
Perfect for readers of Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and James Rebanks - as well as fans of Brian Cox and the BBC’s Sky at Night 
 
 
Gary Fildes left school at sixteen, got a trade like most of his mates and was soon married with four kids. His life seemed set. But he had a secret. Something he only practised late at night with a few like-minded friends. Then one day, middle age approaching alarmingly, he acted on his lifelong passion. He finally came out. As an astronomer. 
 
Today, Gary is the founder and lead astronomer of Kielder Observatory, one of the top ten stargazing sites in the world, which he also helped to build. Situated in the beautiful forests of Kielder, Northumberland, within Europe’s largest protected dark sky park, it offers some of the UK's most spectacular views of stars, planets and galaxies. 
 
An Astronomer’s Tale is Gary’s inspirational story: part memoir, part nature writing, part seasonal guide to the night sky. It is a book brimming with passion; and at a time when the world is captivated by space, it will leave you ready to get out there and explore the wonders of the skies for yourself.

An Astronomer's Tale

A Bricklayer’s Guide to the Galaxy

Deborah Coates

Cats have been with us for thousands of year. They are: 
 
Enigmatic friends 
Lone hunters, family pets 
Our garden tigers 
 
and they too can be a man's best friend. The haiku is an ancient and honourable Japanese verse form - three lines, seventeen syllables - encapsulating a vision of the poem's subject; a person, place, even a cat... 
 
CAT HAIKU presents cats as you've never seen them before. In a series of brilliant vignettes, Deborah Coates gets inside the minds of our cats and comes up with some surprising revelations. You will never look at your (or anyone else's) cat the same way again.

Cat Haiku

Tim Peake

The inspirational autobiography of Britain’s beloved astronaut Tim Peake, the #1 bestselling author of Hello, is this Planet Earth? and Ask an Astronaut 
 
As heard on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs 
__________________ 
'What surprised me was how entirely serene I felt. I was weightless, no forces exerting themselves on my body. To my left was the Space Station. Below me, gradually going into shadow, was the Earth. And over my right shoulder was the universe.' 
 
In fascinating and personal detail, and drawing on exclusive diaries and audio recordings from his mission, astronaut Tim Peake takes readers closer than ever before to experience what life in space is really like: the sights, the smells, the fear, the sacrifice, the exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view. 
 
Warm, inspiring and often funny, Tim also charts his surprising road to becoming an astronaut, from a shy and unassuming boy from Chichester who had a passion for flight, to a young British Army officer, Apache helicopter pilot, flight instructor and test pilot who served around the world. Tim's extensive eighteen-year career in the Army included the command of a platoon of soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, deployment in Bosnia, and operations in Afghanistan. 
 
Full of life lessons for readers of all ages, Limitless is the story of how ordinary can become extraordinary. 
__________________ 
'For someone who has literally been out of this world Tim's an incredibly down to earth guy and I think you'll be amazed at some of the things he has done ... it's so inspiring to know that even going into space didn't change him as much as being a parent did.' JOE WICKS 
 
'Tim is one of our nation's good guys - and his story is a testament to his courage, kindness and a never-give-up spirit.' BEAR GRYLLS 
 
'Full of courage, camaraderie and daring escapades, this reads like a Boys' Own adventure' MIRROR 
 
'A fantastic book' PIERS MORGAN 
 
'Fasten your seatbelt for an exhilarating read ... His accounts of blasting into orbit at 25 times the speed of sound and floating, weightless, around the space station are enthralling.' EXPRESS 
 
Bestseller in the UK, Sunday Times, October 2020

Limitless: The Autobiography

The bestselling story of Britain’s inspirational astronaut

Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth is a hilarious celebration of the great eccentrics who have performed dangerous experiments on themselves for the benefit of humankind, written with all the wit, humour and eye for the beauties of nature - and machinery and scientific equipment - that have gained Trevor Norton a cult following and critical acclaim. 
 
Many have followed the advice of the great Victorian scientist Jack Haldane to 'never experiment on an animal if a man will do' and 'never ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do yourself.'.He and his father inhaled poisonous gasses to test the efficacy of the prototype gas mask they had invented. When breathing gasses under pressure he suffered the smoking ears and screaming teeth of the title. 
 
The stories are astonishing, disturbing or absurd - the Marquis de Sade meets Monty Python. John Hunter pioneered self-experimentation and deliberately infected himself with venereal diseases by the puss transference method and gave his name to chancre of the penis. The zoologist Frank Buckland made a concentrated effort to widen the nation's diet by personally testing everything that crossed his path, from boiled elephant's trunk to bluebottles. He published recipes for such delicacies as slug soup. Some medics deliberately contracted deadly blood diseases in the hope of finding cures. Then there was the the surgeon who got the sack and won the Nobel prize for thrusting a catheter into his own beating heart. 
 
Trevor Norton writes that self-experimentation is still a component of much scientific research. In our health and safety obsessed society, we need people who are willing to risk themselves to make life safer for us.

Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth

Jim Perrin

Using unpublished diaries, Jim Perrin, the acclaimed author of The Villain and Menlove, tells the story of the greatest exploring partnership in British history. In the 1930s Tilman and the younger Shipton pioneered many routes in Africa and the Himalayas and found the key to unlocking Everest. They crossed Africa by bicycle, explored China with Spender and Auden, journeyed down the Oxus River to its source and, with no support, opened up much of the Nepalese Himalaya. In the words of Jim Perrin, 'The journeys of discovery undertaken through two decades by this pair of venturesome ragamuffins are unparallelled in the annals of mountain exploration.' 
 
Jim Perrin writes of his source-material: 'These unpublished diaries, journals, and extensive correspondence have not previously been used to present a portrait of the most productive friendship in the history of mountain exploration. What they reveal is, in Shipton's phrase, "a random harvest of delight" gathered by two uniquely bold and engaging characters from the great mountain ranges of the world during the golden era of their first western exploration. Between geographical excitement, the nature of arduous travel in difficult and uncharted terrain throughout a lost epoch, and the quirkiest and most stimulating of friendships, the theme is a gift, and one that has long been waiting for adequate treatment'.

Shipton and Tilman

Fiona Phillips

Fiona Phillips is one of our best-loved television presenters. Well-known for being warm, chatty and down to earth, she attended her local comprehensive in Southampton before studying English in Birmingham. For over twelve years she presented GMTV, during which time she interviewed some of the most famous and influential people on the planet, from film stars to royalty, politicians to local heroes. But in August 2008 Fiona announced that she was to quit the job she loved, revealing that her father, Phil, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's just a year after her mother had died of the same disease and that she had decided to devote more time to him and to her family. 
 
Before I Forget is a wonderfully honest account of growing up in the 1960s and 70s within a complex family. During her childhood her father could sometimes be distant and demanding which both saddened her and drove her to succeed, her mother always the devoted wife and the steady heart of the family. When Fiona lands the job at GMTV she revels in how proud they are of her achievement. When her mother and then her father succumb to Alzheimer's we share in Fiona's sadness as she movingly describes watching them fade away, one moment interviewing George Clooney the next taking a call from Pembrokeshire Social Services to say that her mother had wandered away from her care home. 
 
Before I Forget is an extraordinary book which will resonate with Fiona's millions of fans and the millions of people who day-by-day are going through, or have gone through, the same experiences.

Before I Forget

Sophia Kingshill

The Estate of Jennifer Westwood

Pirates and smugglers, ghost ships and sea-serpents, fishermen’s prayers and sailors’ rituals – the coastline of the British Isles plays host to an astonishingly rich variety of local legends, customs, and superstitions. 
 
In The Fabled Coast, renowned folklorists Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood gather together the most enthralling tales and traditions, tracing their origins and examining the facts behind the legends. Was there ever such a beast as the monstrous Kraken? Did a Welsh prince discover America, centuries before Columbus? What happened to the missing crew of the Mary Celeste? Along the way, they recount the stories that are an integral part of our coastal heritage, such as the tale of Drake’s Drum, said to be heard when England was in peril, and the mythical island of Hy Brazil, which for centuries appeared on sea charts and maps to the west of Ireland. The result is an endlessly fascinating, often surprising journey through our island history.

The Fabled Coast

Legends & traditions from around the shores of Britain & Ireland

Michael Crichton

ER has become the most succesful television series in the world since CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Michael Crichton created the series from his own experiences as a medical doctor in the emergency rooms, operating rooms and wards of Massachusetts General Hospital. FIVE PATIENTS is Michael Crichton's true account of the real life dramas so vividly portrayed in ER. A construction worker is seriously injured in a scaffold collapse: a middle-aged despatcher is brought in suffering from a fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; a young man nearly severs his hand in an accident; an airline traveller suffers chest pains; a mother of three is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Five Patients

Alastair Campbell

Are you happy? Does it matter? 
 
Increasingly, governments seem to think so. As the UK government conducts its first happiness survey, Alastair Campbell looks at happiness as a political as well as a personal issue; what it should mean to us, what it means to him. Taking in economic and political theories, he questions how happiness can survive in a grossly negative media culture, and how it could inform social policy. 
 
But happiness is also deeply personal. Campbell, who suffers from depression, looks in the mirror and finds a bittersweet reflection, a life divided between the bad and not-so-bad days, where the highest achievements in his professional life could leave him numb, and he can somehow look back on a catastrophic breakdown twenty-five years ago as the best thing that happened to him. He writes too of what he has learned from the recent death of his best friend, further informing his view that the pursuit of happiness is a long game. 
 
Originally published as part of the Brain Shots series, the pre-eminent source for high-quality, short-form digital non-fiction.

The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness

Mavis Marsh

Andrew Crofts

On 12th October 1995, Mavis Marsh answered her door to the news every parent dreads most. 'It's your son,' the policeman told her. 'He's been in an accident.' Only hours earlier Matthew had been set for a dazzling future but, in one terrible night, a devastating tragedy altered everything. 
 
Days later, Mavis found herself standing at her son's bedside as doctors told her to give up all hope. According to them, the damage to Matthew's brain was too severe for him to recover, and the boy she had known and loved was gone forever. 
 
But Mavis and her husband Keith couldn't give up on their only son. And refusing to accept the diagnosis, they started to work with Matthew themselves, desperately urging their comatose son to fight. For months they tried, to no avail. But then, almost half a year later, he suddenly started to respond ...

Shattered

Molly Watson

When two city girls embark on an afternoon of idle window-shopping in Worcestershire and end up buying a horse, their lives swerve gloriously off course. Within weeks they have abandoned their careers in London in favour of life in the wilds of Ledbury. But their dreams of a sunny rural idyll, preferably funded by a landed local bachelor, are quick to shatter. Thrown into a hair-raising world where the horses have cocaine habits and the locals have developed their own alternative to Viagra, Molly Watson and her sister Annabel make their way through the maelstrom that is country life to hilarious effect.

In The Pink

A Rural Odyssey

This is the remarkably funny true story of some of the brave, brilliant and often barmy men that invented diving. It is a story of explosive tempers and exploding teeth, of how to juggle live hand grenades and steer a giant rubber octopus. A series of vivid portraits reveal the eccentric exploits of these underwater pioneers. They include Guy who held a world altitude record when only sixteen, wrote a film for Humphrey Bogart, invented snorkelling and loved his wife enough to shoot her. Roy wore a backet over his head and stole a coral reef. Bill wearied of fishing with dynamite and wrestling deadly snakes, so he sealed himself in a metal coffin to dangle half a mile beneath the ocean. Cameron, testing the bouncing bomb for dam busters, made a plastic ear for a dog, a false testicle for a stallion and invented a mantrap disguised as a lavatory. He ascended from a depth of 200 feet without breathing equipment to see if his lungs would burst, then studied the effects of underwater explosions by standing closer and closer until shattered by the blast. The book also traces the evolution of underwater exploration, from spear fishermen to conversationalists, from treasure hunters to archaeologists, from photographers to philosophers. The sea is a secretive and seductive place and the author describes, with incredible humour, knowledge and historical accuracy, the magic and mystery of being beneath the waves.

Stars Beneath The Sea

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