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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Dalai Lama

Desmond Tutu

The Book of Joy

Charles Foster

We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive. 
 
This book travels to the far frontiers of the planet, and of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic and political movements, and of life itself: from a rocky precipice in the Peloponnese where the first human set foot in Europe to an ancient Egyptian temple where monotheism was invented; from St Francis, kissing lepers’ sores to the giant bird-eating mice of St Kilda. 
 
Why do we stare at sunsets? Why do we celebrate birthdays and grieve for those who are gone? Why do all adventures begin when we leave and get lost? Who has the better view of reality – the Government or the dispossessed? And what happens when we live with the knowledge that we’re all teetering on the edge of the dark?

The Edges of the World

At the margins of life, lands and history

Christine Rosen

Drawing on decades of research, The Extinction of Experience is a philosophical defence of what makes us human – and a powerful, urgent call to reclaim ourselves in a digital world. 
 
Human experiences are disappearing. 
 
Social media, gaming and dating apps have usurped in-person interaction; handwriting is no longer prioritised in schools; and emotion is sooner expressed through likes and emojis than face-to-face conversations. With headphones in and eyes trained on our phones, even boredom has been obliterated. But, as Christine Rosen expertly shows, when we embrace this mediated life and conform to the demands of the machine, we risk becoming disconnected and machine-like ourselves. 
 
There is another way. For too long, under the influence of corporate giants and tech enthusiasts, we’ve accepted the idea that change always means better. But rapidly developing technology isn’t neutral – it’s ambivalent, and capable of enormous harm. To improve our well-being, help future generations flourish and recover our shared humanity, we must become more critical, mindful users of technology, and more discerning of how it uses us. 
 
From TikTok challenges and algorithms to surveillance devices and conspiracy culture, The Extinction of Experience reveals the human crisis of our digital age – and urges us to return to the real world, while we still can.

The Extinction of Experience

How to Be Human in a Digital World

Reclaiming Our Humanity in a Digital World

Thomas More

Michael Symmons Roberts

Michael Symmons Roberts’ full-cast dramatisation of Thomas More’s classic work, plus an accompanying documentary exploring its legacy 
 
Thomas More's classic work of speculative fiction, Utopia, was published over 500 years ago, yet has entered the culture so deeply that the name of his fictional island is still how we refer to our hopes and dreams of a better society. This immersive dramatisation is adapted by the award-winning poet and author Michael Symmons Roberts, and is paired with a documentary programme that further explores More’s iconic book. 
 
In Utopia, a full cast brings to life More's strange and enchanting island. More travels to Antwerp, to sort out a dispute in the commercial wool trade. While he is there, he meets an old man who is clearly widely travelled. When More complains about the petty politics of the trade dispute, the stranger says he has seen another way of living. He introduces himself as the adventurer Raphael Hythloday, and describes a thrilling journey exploring an unmapped part of the ocean, discovering an island society unlike any seen before. The island is called ‘Utopia’... Starring Raad Rawi as Raphael Hythloday, Nacho Aldeguer as the young Raphael, and Michael Peavoy as Thomas More. 
 
In the accompanying documentary, Utopias, Michael Symmons Roberts examines the book’s intellectual legacy. It generated an idea that has been hotly contested throughout the hundreds of years since its release; a slippery tale that blurs fact and fiction and which has left readers trying to fathom whether More was presenting the island of Utopia as a model society or as a salutary tale. He also eavesdrops on figures from the BBC archives describing what their personal Utopias might look like – including Tony Benn, Jeanette Winterson, Aldous Huxley, Nawal El Saadawi and Iain Banks. 
 
Michael Symmons Roberts is an award-winning poet, author and dramatist. His poetry book Corpus won the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2007 he received the Arts Council Writers Award. He was elected a Fellow of the English Association in 2012 and in 2014 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has worked with composer James MacMillan for the BBC Proms and won awards for his radio adaptations of His Fearful Symmetry and Soldiers in the Sun. 
 
Cast and credits 
 
Utopia 
Written by Thomas More 
Adapted by Michael Symmons Roberts 
Directed by Susan Roberts 
Raphael Hythloday - Raad Rawi 
Young Raphael - Nacho Aldeguer 
Thomas More / Achorian - Michael Peavoy 
Peter Giles - Cameron Blakeley 
Abraxa - Emily Pithon 
Barzanes - Jonathan Keeble 
Macaria - Fiona Clarke 
First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 24 January 2016 
 
Utopias 
Presented by Michael Symmons Roberts 
Produced by Geoff Bird 
First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 January 2016 
 
©2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Utopia

A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation & more

Deepak Chopra

Are you sleepwalking through life, overwhelmed by an unending stream of desires, duties and demands? 
 
Imagine a life where you are fully awake and deeply connected to your true self. This awakened life begins with a single decision: to know the truth about yourself. 
 
In this groundbreaking guide, Deepak Chopra reveals how you can connect with your true self and break free from the limitations of the ego. Building on decades of spiritual teachings, Chopra takes you through 40 sutras – statements that capture the essence of a profound truth – and shows you how to move from a state of simply surviving to one where you can access deeper intuition and insights. 
 
Featuring practical exercises, meditations and personal stories from Chopra's own spiritual journey, Awakening will shake you from the nightmare of a limited self and invite you to embrace a new way of being – one marked by inner peace, purpose and boundless possibility, where miracles become everyday occurrences.

Awakening

The Path to Freedom and Enlightenment

Kim Suhyun

The million-copy Korean phenomenon blending self-help and memoir 
As seen being read by BTS's Jungkook on Bon Voyage, the hit reality TV show following K-pop sensation BTS! 
 
Don’t be kind to those who aren’t kind to you. 
Remember that no one lives a perfect life. 
Don’t be swayed by what others say. 
Don’t try too hard to get along with everyone. 
 
As soon as Kim Suhyun graduated into the adult world, she faced a harsh reality. Everywhere she looked people stepped on each other to get ahead, obsessed over money, and judged others based on the unrealistic standards they saw on social media. It seemed impossible not to compare herself to others and feel that she was ever good enough. 
 
With words of comfort and charming illustrations throughout, Kim Suhyun will inspire you on your own journey of self-love, self-acceptance and self-compassion. Blending self-help and memoir, I Decided to Live as Me will help you free yourself from the pressures of living up to other people’s expectations and focus on what truly matters: living not for anyone else, but for yourself.

I Decided to Live as Me

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others So You Can Learn to Love Yourself

César A. Hidalgo

We all understand that knowledge shapes the fate of business and the growth of nations, but few of us are aware of the principles that govern its motion. The Infinite Alphabet unravels the laws describing the growth and diffusion of knowledge by taking you from a failed attempt to build a city of knowledge in Ecuador to the growth of China’s innovation economy. Through dozens of stories, you will learn why aircraft manufacturers in Italy began manufacturing scooters after the Second World War and how migrants like Samuel Slater shaped the industrial fabric of the United States. 
 
Knowledge is the secret to the wealth of nations. But to understand it, we must accept that it is not a single thing, but an ever-growing tapestry of unique ideas, experiences and received wisdom. An Infinite Alphabet that we are only beginning to fathom. 
 
César A. Hidalgo, a world-renowned scholar for his work on economic complexity, will walk you through the “three laws” and the many principles that govern how knowledge grows, moves, and decays. By the end of this journey, you will understand why knowledge grows exponentially in the electronics industry and what mechanisms govern its diffusion across geographic borders, social networks, and professional boundaries. 
 
Together these principles will teach you how knowledge shapes the world.

The Infinite Alphabet

And the Laws of Knowledge

Graham Harman

How do we understand the world and our place in it? Do our lives consist of a small number of dramatic turning points, or is there nothing but a series of gradual changes from infancy to old age? Are political elections genuinely transformational, or merely arbitrary points along a shifting cultural timeline? And in physics, how can the continuities of general relativity coexist with the discontinuities of quantum theory?In Waves and Stones, Graham Harman shows that this paradoxical interaction – the question of whether reality is made up of sudden jumps, or is laid out along a gentle gradient with no clear divisions between the various things in the world – permeates every area of human life. What’s more, this paradox is as old as human thought itself. In exploring how the continuous and discrete relate to each other, he takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey from the philosophers of ancient Greece, through the writings of the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, through architectural and evolutionary theory, the compatibility of religion with science, and the wave-particle duality of matter.To explore the relationship between the continuous and the discrete, Harman shows, is to consider the very fabric of reality. With this dazzling new book, he proposes a new way of thinking about this ancient problem, with profound implications for our understanding of ourselves and the bewilderingly complex world in which we live.

Waves and Stones

On the Ultimate Nature of Reality

Werner Herzog

What if a lie is told to reveal some underlying truth? Are feelings that seem inappropriate, such as hysteria following the death of a celebrity, any less true than the grief we feel over the death of a loved one? Even if the plot of an opera seems preposterous, can’t it still express emotions that ring true with the audience? 
 
At the heart of this fascinating and iconoclastic book lies Werner Herzog’s concept of ‘ecstatic truth’ – a truth that is often hidden behind the facts and our conceptions of reality but can be gleaned through the poetic imagination, in art, literature and cinema, when we open ourselves up to an aesthetic experience. 
 
Written in Herzog’s inimitable style, these stories, anecdotes and reflections take us from present-day deep fakes and the opportunities and perils of AI to ancient Egypt and Rome, where rulers resorted to lies and propaganda in the same way as governments do today; from Scott and Amundsen’s race to the South Pole to alien abduction claims and the making of Herzog’s own films. 
 
With its singular vision and unique voice, The Future of Truth is a compelling meditation on the relationship between fact and fiction – evidence and imagination – by one of today’s most fascinating and idiosyncratic thinkers.

The Future of Truth

Seneca

It is philosophy that has the duty of protecting us ... without it no one can lead a life free of fear or worry 
 
For several years of his turbulent life, in which he was dogged by ill health, exile and danger, Seneca was the guiding hand of the Roman Empire. This selection of Seneca's letters shows him upholding the ideals of Stoicism – the wisdom of the self-possessed person immune to life's setbacks – while valuing friendship and courage, and criticizing the harsh treatment of slaves and the cruelties in the gladiatorial arena. The humanity and wit revealed in Seneca's interpretation of Stoicism is a moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.

Letters from a Stoic

Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium

Penguin Classics

Paul Kingsnorth

In Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake. 
 
It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Here Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic and poetic, Against the Machine is a spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

Against the Machine

On the Unmaking of Humanity

Epictetus

'I must die. But must I die bawling?' 
 
Epictetus, a Greek Stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicopolis in the early second century CE. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil. The Discourses argue that happiness lies in learning to perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embracing our fate to live in harmony with god and nature. In this personal, practical guide to the ethics of Stoicism and moral self-improvement, Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, illness and fear, family, friendship and love. 
 
This is a Penguin Pocket Hardback edition, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Robert Dobbin's modern and lively translation is accompanied by an introduction and notes.

Discourses and Selected Writings

Phillips Payson O'Brien

War and power are two of the most-widely discussed issues in all of human history, and yet they are, time and again, misunderstood — often disastrously so. 
 
Whilst we might think the outcome of war is determined by so-called ‘Great Powers’ who dominate their opponents with their impressive size and military prowess, the reality of modern conflict, as renowned strategic historian Professor Phillips Payson O’Brien demonstrates, is very different. He urges us instead to look for ‘Full Spectrum Powers’. 
 
For if we are considering how powerful a nation is and who will win a war, we need to think less about weapons, and more about the economies and societies that produce them; less about individual battles, and more about sustaining campaigns and alliances in which states operate. 
 
Using fascinating examples from the late 19th century to the present day, War and Power explains how misunderstanding war and power has led to terrible, even preventable conflicts – such as the war in Ukraine – and how more accurate analysis can help us consider the potential conflict between the US and China. 
 
War and Power provides a bold new way of understanding the dangerous world around us.

War and Power

Who Wins Wars — and Why

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Who owns language? In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngugi wa Thiong’o presents a series of essays that build on his vast wealth of work on language and its constructive role in national culture, history, and identity. Intricate, nuanced and accessible, it reaffirms the revolutionary power of African languages to fight back against both the psychic and material impacts of colonialism, past and present.With immense relevance to our present moment, Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a brilliant distillation of the enduring themes of Ngugi’s work and a vital addition to the library of one of the world’s greatest and most provocative writers.

Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas

Drew Afualo

The empowering, inspiring, patriarchy-smashing first book by the TikTok and Spotify star Drew Afualo. 
 Drew Afualo is best known as the internet’s 'Crusader for Women' and is at the head of a new generation of entertainment’s rising stars, with more than nine million followers across her social platforms. She soon realized that men on social media were creating sexist content aimed at disparaging women, and also containing rampant fatphobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry with very real-life consequences. It didn’t take long for her to step into the role of unofficial watchdog for misogyny, and her signature laugh is now recognized as a feminist call to arms. 
 Loud is part manual, part manifesto and part memoir. It is a summoning cry to rid the internet (and our hearts, minds, and lives) of terrible men and create a space to fight outdated patriarchal ideals. Above all, it makes it clear that behind Drew’s fearsome laugh is a mission and a life philosophy, a strategy for self-confidence from the inside out, and a pathway to once and for all remove men from the centre of how women and femmes think about themselves.

Loud

Accept Nothing Less Than The Life You Deserve

Marshall Goldsmith

Mark Reiter

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'Helps you keep achieving - and find peace and happiness in the process' Amy Edmondson, author of Right Kind of Wrong 
 
‘We are living an earned life when the choices, risks and effort we make align with an overarching purpose in our lives.’ 
 
In our modern world, we are constantly striving for the next best thing – the next promotion, the newest car, the bigger house. And yet, even when we achieve these goals, we often don’t feel fully satisfied. 
 
In his most powerful work to date, the world’s number one leadership coach and New York Times bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith reveals the key to living ‘the earned life’. 
 
Full of illuminating stories from Goldsmith’s legendary career as a coach to some of the world’s highest-achieving leaders, Goldsmith implores readers to avoid the Great Western Disease of ‘I’ll be happy when . . .’ He offers practical advice and exercises to help us avoid the obstacles to creating fulfilling lives. From learning to privilege your future over your present, to understanding the balance between risk and opportunity, the book is packed with transformative insights and tools that will help readers avoid regret by closing the gap between what they plan to achieve and what they actually get done. 
 
The Earned Life is a roadmap for ambitious people seeking a higher purpose. 
 
'Inspiring insight from the world's top coach. Goldsmith left me tingling from the journey of reflection I'd been taken on' Bruce Daisley, author of The Joy of Work

The Earned Life

Lose Regret, Choose Fulfilment

Richard Whatmore

The Enlightenment is popularly seen as the Age of Reason, a key moment in human history when ideals such as freedom, progress, natural rights and constitutional government prevailed. In this radical re-evaluation, historian Richard Whatmore shows why, for many at its centre, the Enlightenment was a profound failure. 
 
By the early eighteenth century, hope was widespread that Enlightenment could be coupled with toleration, the progress of commerce and the end of the fanatic wars of religion that were destroying Europe. At its heart was the battle to establish and maintain liberty in free states &ndash; and the hope that absolute monarchies such as France and free states like Britain might even subsist together, equally respectful of civil liberties. Yet all of this collapsed when states pursued wealth and empire by means of war. Xenophobia was rife and liberty itself turned fanatic. 
 
The End of Enlightenment traces the changing perspectives of economists, philosophers, politicians and polemicists around the world, including figures as diverse as David Hume, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft. They had strived to replace superstition with reason, but witnessed instead terror and revolution, corruption, gross commercial excess and the continued growth of violent colonialism. 
 
Returning us to these tumultuous events and ideas, and digging deep into the thought of the men and women who defined their age, Whatmore offers a lucid exploration of disillusion and intellectual transformation, a brilliant meditation on our continued assumptions about the past, and a glimpse of the different ways our world might be structured - especially as the problems addressed at the end of Enlightenment are still with us today.

The End of Enlightenment

Empire, Commerce, Crisis

Roman Krznaric

'Brimming with ideas and insights, this is a welcome, important and clear-eyed view of how understanding the past can help us better prepare for the future' - Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Earth Transformed and The Silk Roads 
 
'Enlightening and thrilling. History for Tomorrow tells us who we are and who we could be' - George Monbiot, bestselling author of Regenesis and How Did We Get Into This Mess? 
 
What can humankind’s rich history of radical revolts teach us about the power of disobedience to tackle the climate crisis? What inspiration could we take from eighteenth century Japan to create a regenerative economy today? How might understanding the origins of capitalism spark ideas for bringing AI under control? 
 
In History for Tomorrow, leading social philosopher Roman Krznaric unearths fascinating insights and inspiration from the last 1000 years of world history that could help us confront the most urgent challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. From bridging the inequality gap and reducing the risks of genetic engineering, to reviving our faith in democracy and avoiding ecological collapse, History for Tomorrow shows that history is not simply a means of understanding the past but a way of reimagining our relationship with the future. Krznaric reveals how, time and again, societies have risen up, often against the odds, to tackle challenges and overcome crises. History offers a vision of radical hope that could turn out to be our most vital tool for surviving and thriving in the turbulent decades ahead

History for Tomorrow

How The Past Can Inspire Our Future

Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity

Shunryu Suzuki

'Our way of sitting is for you to become yourself.' 
 
Shunryu Suzuki was one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the last century, who brought Zen philosophy to millions of people. In this book of teachings, many published for the first time, he shares simple, warm-hearted lessons on a practice that is fundamentally about becoming yourself. Filled with humour and insight, Becoming Yourself speaks directly to the newest beginners while also serving as a touchstone and a continual source of inspiration for even the most experienced practitioners and Zen masters. 
 
Resonant, clear and brimming with insight, Becoming Yourself brings together a lifetime’s wisdom in one remarkable volume.

Becoming Yourself

Teachings on the Zen Way of Life

Alexander Douglas

Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the world – hoping it will bring us happiness. But this often leads to a complex game of envy and pride. We achieve these identities but want others to imitate us. We disagree with those whose identities contradict ours – leading to polarisation and even violence. And yet when they thump against us, we are ashamed to ring hollow. 
 
In Against Identity, philosopher Alexander Douglas seeks an alternative wisdom. Searching the work of three thinkers – ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, Dutch Enlightenment thinker Benedict de Spinoza, and 20th Century French theorist René Girard – he explores how identity can be a spiritual violence that leads us away from truth. 
 
Through their worlds and radically different cultures, we discover how, at moments of historical rupture, our hunger for being grows: and yet, it is exactly these times when we should make peace with our indeterminacy and discover the freedom of escaping our selves.

Against Identity

The Wisdom of Escaping the Self

Charles Handy

Over a span of seven decades, Charles Handy was, variously, a businessman, a writer, a philanthropist and a philosopher. Not even a stroke as he approached the age of 90 dimmed his intellectual curiosity or his immense zest for life. 
 
In this, his final book, written from the vantage point of a contemplative old age and drawing on his articles for The Idler he shares his thoughts on the big questions with which we all grapple: 
 
What things really matter? 
What daily worries should we learn to treat as unimportant? 
How do we become more accepting of ourselves and of those around us? 
How do we discover purpose in our everyday existence? How do we cope with grief and loss? 
 
 
Drawing in part on his own experience, in part on the wisdom of others, he sets out the principles of enjoying a fulfilled and contented life, and gently points the way to the practicalities of achieving it.

The View from Ninety

Reflections on How to Live a Long, Contented Life

Webb Keane

We have always lived with ethically significant others, whether they are the pets we keep, the gods we believe in or the machines we are endowing with life. How should we treat them as our world changes? 
 
In Animals, Robots, Gods, acclaimed anthropologist Webb Keane provides a new vision of ethics, defined less by our minds, religion or society, and more by our interactions with those around us. Drawing on ground-breaking research by fieldworkers around the world, he explores the underpinnings of our moral universe. Along the way we investigate the ethical dilemmas of South Asian animal rights activists, Balinese cockfighters, Japanese robot fanciers - even macho cowboys. We meet a hunter in the Yukon who explains his prey generously gives itself up to him; a cancer sufferer in Thailand who sees his tumour as a reincarnated ox; a computer that gets you to confess your anxieties as if you were on the psychiatrist's couch. 
 
With charm, wit and insight, Keane offers us a better understanding of our doubts and certainties, showing how centuries of conversations between us and non-humans inform our conceptions of morality, and will continue to guide us in the age of AI and beyond.

Animals, Robots, Gods

Adventures in the Moral Imagination

Peter Moore

Bestselling historian Peter Moore traces how Enlightenment ideas were exported from Britain and put into practice in America - where they became the most successful export of all time, the American Dream 
 
'Absorbing... fascinating... eloquent' THE TIMES 
'Engaging and thoroughly reader-friendly' TELEGRAPH 
'Wonderfully absorbing and stimulating' SARAH BAKEWELL 
 
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is frequently evoked today as shorthand for the American Dream. But this is a line with a surprising history. Rather than being uniquely American, the vision it encapsulates – of a free and happy world – owes a great deal to British thinkers too. 
 
Centred on the life of Benjamin Franklin, featuring figures like the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the groundbreaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It takes us back to a vital moment in the foundation of the West and tells a whole new story about the birth of the United States of America – and some of the key principles by which we live to this day. 
 
 
'Deft insights and in clear prose' ALAN TAYLOR 
'A gripping account' STELLA TILLYARD 
'Rollicking...compulsive readability' WASHINGTON POST 
'A great read' LADY HALE

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Britain and the American Dream (1740–1776)

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Endeavour

Akshi Singh

The celebrated psychoanalyst Marion Milner invented new ways of thinking about leisure. A hundred years on, Akshi Singh follows her methods, with life-changing consequences.'Illuminating and thought-provoking' Darian Leader 
 
'Astounding, generous, and quietly exhilarating' Daisy LaFarge 
 
Marion Milner lived for the entirety of the twentieth century. By the age of ninety-eight she had written nine books revealing how free time and creativity are vital for a fulfilled life. 
 
Akshi Singh was born ninety years after Milner, in Rajasthan, over four thousand miles away from where Milner lived and worked. At first glance, the worlds of these two women seem entirely separate. Yet when Singh found herself standing at a crossroads in her life and grieving personal loss, she realised the questions and preoccupations Milner was exploring were her own. 
 
In Defence of Leisure presents Marion Milner as a writer for our times. In asking the simple question: how do I want to spend my free time? Milner developed a method for discovering her true likes and dislikes. As Singh follows Milner's approach - from keeping a diary to painting, building a home to travelling to the sea - she discovers the importance of rest, creativity and play in all of our lives, and how it can open the door to achieving what we truly desire. 
 
'An exquisite, open-hearted celebration of desire, friendship and lives imaginatively lived' Marianne Brooker, author of Intervals 
 
'Singh's verve and intelligence radiate from every page' Hannah Zeavin

In Defence of Leisure

Experiments in Living with Marion Milner

Maggie Nelson

Like Love is a momentous, raucous collection of essays drawn from twenty years of Maggie Nelson’s brilliant work. These profiles, reviews, remembrances, tributes and critical essays, as well as several conversations with friends and idols, bring to life Nelson’s passion for dialogue and dissent. The range of subjects is wide – from Prince to Carolee Schneemann to Kara Walker to Bjork – but certain themes recur: intergenerational exchange; love and friendship; feminist and queer issues, especially as they shift over time; subversion, transgression and perversity; and the fruits and follies of a life spent devoted to making. 
 
The collection is a portrait of a time, an anarchic party rich with wild guests, a window into Nelson’s own development as a writer, and a testament to the profound sustenance offered by art and artists.Arranged chronologically, Like Love shows the writing, thinking, feeling, reading, looking and conversing that occupied Nelson while writing iconic books such as Bluets and The Argonauts. As such, it is a portrait of a time, an anarchic party rich with wild guests, a window into Nelson's own development and a testament to the profound sustenance offered by art and artists.Like Love is a portrait of a time, an anarchic party rich with wild guests, a window into Nelson’s own development as a writer, and a testament to the profound sustenance offered by art and artists.

Like Love

Essays and Conversations

David Brooks

If you are going to care for someone, you must first understand them. If you're going to hire, marry, or befriend someone, you have to be able to see them. If you are going to work closely with someone, you have to be able to make them feel recognized and valued. As David Brooks observes, "The older I get, the more I come to the certainty that there is one skill at the center of any healthy family, company, classroom, community or nation: the ability to see each other, to know other people, to make them feel valued, heard and understood." 
 
And yet we humans don't do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us to do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us. Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, history, and education, to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate towards others; it helps readers find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception. 
 
The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is a profoundly creative act: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, seeking to understand and yearning to be understood.

How To Know a Person

The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

Manvir Singh

What are the origins of shamanism and what is its future? Do shamans believe in their powers? What exactly is trance? What can we learn from indigenous healing practices? 
 
In this enlightening book, anthropologist Manvir Singh offers a new explanation for one of the most misunderstood religious traditions. Travelling from Indonesia to the Amazon, living with shamans and observing music, drug use and indigenous curing ceremonies, he journeys into the origins of shamanism. Fundamentally, shamans are specialists who use altered states to engage with unseen realities and provide services like healing and divination. As Singh shows, shamanism’s ubiquity stems from its psychological resonance. Its core appeal is transformation: a specialist uses initiations, deprivation and non-ordinary states to seemingly become a different kind of human, one possessed with the superpowers necessary to tame life’s uncertainty. 
 
Following a fascinating cast of characters, Singh tells a larger story about the ancient and modern expressions of this timeless tradition. He argues that biomedicine can learn from shamanic practices, yet that psychedelic enthusiasts completely misrepresent history. He also shows that shamanic traditions will forever re-emerge – and that by journeying into humanity’s oldest spiritual practice, we come to better understand ourselves, our history and our future.

Shamanism

The Timeless Religion

Simon Sinek

In 2009, Simon Sinek ignited a movement to help people find a greater sense of purpose at work and added a new word to the lexicon of business: WHY. People and companies now regularly talk about their WHY. Sinek’s videos have been seen by over a billion people around the world, including more than 65 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on Start with Why. 
 
Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? 
 
Start With Why shows that the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way— and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common but they inspired people, not with WHAT they did...but with WHY they did it. 
 
Sinek provides a simple framework that inspires people to build organizations and lead movements in a more powerful and effective way. And it all starts with WHY. 
 
With a new foreword touching on the importance of holding onto our WHY in a distracted age, new examples, and original stories updated, this 15th anniversary edition celebrates a simple but transformative idea that has changed the way we think about leadership and legacy.

Start With Why

15th Anniversary Edition: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Tony Blair

Tony Blair learnt the precepts of governing the hard way: by leading a country for over ten years. In that time he came to understand that there are certain key characteristics of successful government that he wished he had known about when he started. 
 
Now he has written the manual on political leadership that he would have wanted when he first took office in 1997, sharing the insights he has gained from his personal experience and from observing other world leaders at first hand, both while he was prime minister and since, through his Institute’s work with political leaders and governments globally. 
 
Written in short, pithy chapters, packed with examples drawn from all forms of political systems from around the world, the book answers the key questions: How should a leader organise the centre of government and their office? How should they prioritise and develop the right plan and hire the right personnel, cope with unforeseen events and crises, and balance short-term wins with longterm structural change? What’s the best way to deal with an obstructive or inert bureaucracy, to attract investment, to reform healthcare or education, and to ensure security for the citizen? And how should governments harness the massive opportunities of the 21st-century technological revolution? 
 
This is a masterclass on leadership in general, and political leadership in particular, from a master statesman.

On Leadership

Lessons for the 21st Century

Shi Heng Yi

What do you imagine when you think of Shaolin? Ferociously strong warriors flying through the air? 
 
Shaolin is more than just the physical expression of martial arts. Rooted in Zen and Tao philosophy, it also offers a way of reconnecting our minds with our bodies through meditative movement to cultivate the core virtues of discipline and perseverance. 
 
In this book, Shi Heng Yi, founder of Shaolin Temple Europe and lay disciple of the Songshan Shaolin Temple, introduces us to the contemplative practice that underpins Shaolin – a way of life that has existed for over 1,500 years – and shows how it can help us today. 
 
Having experienced the challenges of modern life as a young man, Shi Heng Yi understands the pressures only too well. Here, he highlights key practices to help improve sleep, relationships and decision-making, as much as balance, flexibility and strength, offering a powerful pathway to self-mastery and understanding.

Shaolin Spirit

The Way to Self-Mastery

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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