Abigail Owen is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of 30+ books that range from upper YA (18+) epic romantasy to new adult modern mythic romantasy to super spicy adult paranormal romance. She loves magical worlds with plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include: wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, AuDHD, spreadsheet lover, Jeopardy! fanatic, organizational guru, true classic movie buff, linguaphile, wishful world traveller, and chocoholic. Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own swoon-worthy hero, their (mostly) angelic teenagers, and an adorable fur baby. abigailowen.com

Abigail Owen

Abigail Ulman was born and raised in Melbourne. She has a BA in Creative Arts from the University of Melbourne/VCA and was a recent Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University. This is her first book.

Abigail Ulman

Abilio Estévez

Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham &amp; Banerjee series of crime novels set in 1920s India and the British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year 2025 Hunted. His books have been translated into sixteen languages and won various awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, and the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing. 
 
 
He also co-hosts the popular Red Hot Chilli Writers podcast which takes a wry look at the world of books, writing, and the creative arts, tackling everything from bestsellers to pop culture. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in Surrey with his wife and two sons. 
 
 
Website: abirmukherjee.com Twitter, Threads &amp; Instagram: @radiomukhers Facebook: AuthorAbir

Abir Mukherjee

Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham L. Newman is a professor at the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He is a 2022-2023 Berlin Prize winner and his work has been published in leading outlets like The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Nature, Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, and Politico.

Abraham Newman

Abraham Verghese

Absolut Vodka

Ad Putter

Ada Moncrieff is the author of Murder Most Festive, Murder at the Theatre Royale and Murder at Maybridge Castle. She lives and works in London.

Ada Moncrieff

Adam Aleksic is a linguist and content creator posting educational videos as the “Etymology Nerd” to an audience of over three million. As a linguistics student at Harvard College, he founded and served as president of the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. He’s discussed online language on NPR, repeatedly contributed to The Washington Post, and his work has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Economist, and The Guardian. He’s lectured on language and social media at Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and other top universities, including a TEDx talk at the University of Pennsylvania. Adam is based in New York City, where he spends a lot of time scrolling TikTok for “research.”

Adam Aleksic

Adam Alter is an Associate Professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, and holds an affiliated appointment within the Psychology Department. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel and Behave and has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Wired, Popular Science and numerous other publications.

Adam Alter

Professor Adam Balen is lead clinician at one of the UK's largest and most successful IVF units at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. In recognition of his research on fertility and related conditions, he holds a DSc (the highest academic degree in medicine) from the University of Leeds. Adam is internationally renowned, holding roles with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Federation of Gyneacology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gyneacologists (RCOG). He runs both NHS and private fertility clinics so he understands the issues that arise from both sides and he works closely with fertility patient support organisations across the UK. Adam regularly features in the media on all aspects of reproductive health and lectures widely throughout the world.

Adam Balen

Adam Baron

Adam Bornstein

Adam Brookes grew up in the UK and was a journalist with BBC News for many years. As a foreign correspondent he was based in Indonesia, China and the United States. Along the way he reported from many other countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea. He lives in Washington DC.

Adam Brookes

Adam Buxton

Adam Byatt

Adam Christopher is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith and Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town. He has also written official tie-in novels for the hit CBS television show Elementary and the award-winning Dishonored video game franchise. Co-creator of the twenty-first-century incarnation of Archie Comics superhero The Shield, Adam has also written for the universes of Doctor Who and World of Warcraft, and is a contributor to the internationally bestselling Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View anniversary anthology series and the all-ages Star Wars Adventures comic. Adam’s original novels include Made to Kill and The Burning Dark, among many others, and his debut novel Empire State was both a SciFi Now and Financial Times book of the year.

Adam Christopher

Adam Foulds's most recent books are In the Wolf’s Mouth, The Quickening Maze, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Encore Award and the European Union Prize for Literature, and The Broken Word, which won the Costa Poetry Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. He has recently been awarded the E.M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and named as one of Granta’s ‘Best of Young British Novelists’.

Adam Foulds

Dr Adam Fox is a highly qualified and respected allergy specialist and consultant paediatric allergist and clinical lead for Allergy at Guy's &amp; St Thomas' Hospitals. The Times recently named him as one of Britain's top 100 children’s doctors. 
 
www.allergyfreebabyandtoddler.com

Adam Fox

Adam Frost

Adam Galinsky is currently the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He received his PhD from Princeton University in Social Psychology and his B.A. from Harvard University.

Adam Galinsky

Adam Glasser

Adam Goodfellow

Adam Goodwin

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at The Wharton School, where he has been the top-rated professor for seven straight years. His books have sold millions of copies, his TED talks have been viewed more than thirty-five million times, and he hosts the hit podcast Re:Thinking. His pioneering research has challenged widespread assumptions about motivation, success, character, and change, and his viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021 and the most-saved article across platforms. He has been recognized as the world’s number-two most influential management thinker and one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40, and he has received distinguished scientific achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the National Science Foundation. Grant received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and he is a former Junior Olympic springboard diver and magician. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Allison Sweet Grant, a novelist and poet; their two cats (who don’t get along); and their three children (who mostly do).

Adam Grant

Adam and Charlotte met in Zanzibar while working with Voluntary Services Overseas. Upon their return to the UK, Charlotte completed an MA at Oxford Brookes and started her career in publishing. Adam in the meantime became writer-in-residence at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre before co-founding Storytelling Schools, an international organisation dedicated to training teachers in oracy, literacy and creativity. Adam and Charlotte's first book together was the best-selling and award-winning Spaghetti with the Yeti. Since then, Adam and Charlotte have continued to follow their passion for creating engaging books that inspire interaction and creativity in young readers.

Adam Guillain

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'To the utterly at-one with Siva 
there's no dawn.' 
 
Meditative, deeply personal poems to the god Siva, from four major Hindu saints. 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
Mahadeviyakka (10th century), Basavaa, Devara Dasimayya and Allama Prabhu (12th century).

Speaking of Siva

Diarmaid MacCulloch

This book unravels a polyphony of silences from the history of Christianity and beyond. MacCulloch considers Judaeo-Christian borrowings from Greek explorations of the divine, and the silences which were a feature of Jesus's brief ministry. Besides prayer and contemplation, there are shame and evasion; careless and purposeful forgetting. 
 
Many deliberate silences are revealed: the forgetting of histories inconvenient to later Church authorities, and Christianity's problems in dealing honestly with sexuality. Behind all this is the silence of God. In a deeply personal conclusion, MacCulloch brings a message of optimism for those still seeking God beyond the clamour of over-confident certainties.

Silence

A Christian History

Cullen Murphy

For centuries states have used their power to censor, watch, manipulate and punish. God's Jury argues that the Inquisition - the Catholic body that existed for over 700 years - is not a medieval oddity, but is intrinsically bound up with the creation of our modern world. 
 
From Vatican archives to Guantánamo and the Third Reich, Cullen Murphy shows how the Inquisition's techniques - record-keeping, bureaucracy and a terrifying sense of certainty - are now standard operating procedure, and that the battle between private conscience and outside forces is the central contest of the modern era.

God's Jury

The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

Jonathan Haidt

'A landmark contribution to humanity's understanding of itself' The New York Times 
 
Why can it sometimes feel as though half the population is living in a different moral universe? Why do ideas such as 'fairness' and 'freedom' mean such different things to different people? Why is it so hard to see things from another viewpoint? Why do we come to blows over politics and religion? 
 
Jonathan Haidt reveals that we often find it hard to get along because our minds are hardwired to be moralistic, judgemental and self-righteous. He explores how morality evolved to enable us to form communities, and how moral values are not just about justice and equality - for some people authority, sanctity or loyalty matter more. Morality binds and blinds, but, using his own research, Haidt proves it is possible to liberate ourselves from the disputes that divide good people.

The Righteous Mind

Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion

John Guy

This is the man, not the legend . . . 
 
Thomas Becket lived at the centre of medieval England. Son of a draper's merchant, he was befriended and favoured by Henry II and quickly ascended the rungs of power and privilege. He led 700 knights into battle, brokered peace between warring states and advised King and Pope. Yet he lost it all defying his closest friend and King, resulting in his own bloody murder and the birth of a legend. In John Guy's masterful account the life, death and times of Thomas Becket come splendidly alive.

Thomas Becket

Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim: A 900-Year-Old Story Retold

Geza Vermes

Geza Vermes, translator and editor of The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls and worldwide expert on the life and times of Jesus, tells the enthralling story of early Christianity and the origins of a religion. 
 
The creation of the Christian Church is one of the most important stories in the development of the world's history, yet one of the least understood. 
 
With a forensic, brilliant re-examination of all the key surviving texts of early Christianity, Geza Vermes illuminates the origins of a faith and traces the evolution of the figure of Jesus from the man he was - a prophet in the tradition of other Jewish holy men of the Old Testament - to what he came to represent: a mysterious, otherworldly being at the heart of the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Christian Beginnings pulls apart myths and misunderstandings to focus on the true figure of Jesus, and the birth of one of the world's major religions. 
 
Reviews: 
 
'A beautiful and magisterial book' Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Guardian 
 
'An exciting and challenging port of call, sweeping aside much of the fuzzy thinking and special pleading that bedevils the study of sacred scripture ... courteously expressed and witty' Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Times 
 
'A challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century Israel came to be declared as consubstantial and co-equal with the omnipotent, omniscient only God' Stuart Kelly, Scotsman 
 
'A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus' Financial Times 
 
'A very accessible and entertaining read' Scotland on Sunday Books of the Year 
 
'A magnum opus of early Christian history and one of the year's most significant titles' Bookseller

Christian Beginnings

From Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30-325

John Thavis

'A humane and realistic and (yes) humorous picture of a mortal institution. To an old Prot like me, it's a tour of alien terrain and a bridge to old and dear friends' Garrison Keillor 
 
For thirty years John Thavis worked for the Catholic News Service in Rome and reported on the inner workings of the Vatican. The Vatican Diaries is his insightful and often very funny account of exactly what goes on in this unique and secretive institution. It's a place where cardinals fight private wars, scandals are constantly threatening to undermine papal authority, and reverence for the past comes up painfully against the considerations of modern life. 
 
He describes the politics surrounding the election of a new pope and the beatification of an old one, the angst of dealing with the international issue of sexual abuse, the intricacies of arranging a Papal visit to India, the conflicts involved in trying to build a car park over an ancient Roman burial site - and above all the unfathomable personality of the conservative Pope Benedict XVI, the first pope to resign for 600 years. At this extraordinary moment of crisis in the Church, Thavis's account of its inner workings is invaluable.

The Vatican Diaries

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church

Jacky Newcomb

Afterlife expert and bestselling author Jacky Newcomb knows that the spirit world is real. Thousands of people have experienced contact from the departed or seen the afterlife themselves. After collecting these experiences for 12 years, Jacky is here to answer key questions, like: 
 
 - What happens to the soul once the body dies? 
 - Do our experience on earth and our beliefs affect the next part of the journey? 
 - Did our loved ones make it safely to heaven? 
 - Can we communicate with the departed? 
 
 Heaven will bring peace, reassurance and hope to everyone who has ever wondered about life after death.

Heaven

Alain de Botton

All of us, whether religious, agnostic or atheist, are searching for meaning. And in this wise and life-affirming book, non-believer Alain de Botton suggests that religions, far from being nonsensical as atheists maintain, are instead full of good ideas on how to live. 
 
And that we should steal from them. 
 
Picking and choosing from the thousands of years of advice assembled by the world's great religions to get practical insights on art, community, love, friendship, work, life and death, Alain de Botton will show how each of us may find our place in the world.

Religion for Atheists

A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion

Robert Graves

Including many of the greatest stories ever told - the labours of Hercules, the voyage of the Argonauts, Theseus and the minotaur, Midas and his golden touch, the Trojan War and Odysseus's journey home - Robert Graves's superb and comprehensive retelling of the Greek myths for a modern audience has been regarded for over fifty years as the definitive version. 
 
With a novelist's skill and a poet's eye, Graves draws on the entire canon of ancient literature, bringing together all the elements of every myth into one epic and unforgettable story. Ideal for the first time reader, it can be read as a single, continuous narrative, while full commentaries, with cross-references, interpretations, variants and explanations, as well as a comprehensive index of names, make it equally valuable as a work of scholarly reference for anyone seeking an authoritative and detailed account of the gods, heroes and extraordinary events that provide the bedrock of Western literature. 
 
The result is a classic among classics, a treasure trove of extraordinary tales and a masterful work of literature in its own right.

The Greek Myths (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Arundhati Roy

The Shape of the Beast is our world laid bare by a mind that has consistently and unhesitatingly engaged with its changing realities and often anticipated the way things have moved in the last decade. 
 
In the fourteen interviews collected here, conducted between January 2001 and March 2008, Arundhati Roy examines the nature of state and corporate power as it has emerged during this period, and the shape that resistance movements are taking. As she speaks about people displaced by dams and industry, the genocide in Gujurat, Maoist rebels, the war in Kashmir and the global War on Terror, she raises fundamental questions about democracy, justice and non-violent protest. 
 
Unabashedly political, this is also a deeply personal collection that talks about the necessity of taking a stand and about the dilemma of guarding the private space necessary for writing in a world that demands urgent, unequivocal intervention.

The Shape of the Beast

Steve Hagen

What is Buddhism? What are its true teachings? What can it bring to our lives? 
 
Here Steve Hagen, a Zen priest, cuts through the many misconceptions surrounding Buddhism, and shows us its true purpose. Drawing on down-to-earth examples from everyday life, this practical and straightforward guide penetrates the most essential and enduring questions at the heart of the Buddha's teachings: How can we see the world in each moment, rather than merely as what we think, hope, or fear it is? How can we base our actions on reality? How can we live lives that are wise, compassionate, open and honest? 
 
This book offers a profound and clear path to a life of joy and freedom.

Buddhism is Not What You Think

Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs

In the modern world our lives are more frenetic than ever. We live with a burning sense that we have to get something done. But what do we really achieve? And why are we never satisfied? 
 
This book is an invitation to switch off, and to enjoy stillness - right now. Bestselling author and teacher Steve Hagen provides an accessible and thorough manual on meditation, for both newcomers and experienced practitioners. He offers simple practices that avoid needlessly complicating meditation; highlights where many of us get stuck in meditating - and how to get unstuck; and, above all, focuses on meditation not simply as a spiritual technique, but as a way of living.

Meditation Now or Never

Gordon Grice

Consider, if you can, the case of Jacob Fowler, who heard what he thought was the sound of his own skull cracking between the jaws of a grizzly bear - only to discover that it was. 
 
Or the Arizonan jogger who ran a mile back to her car with a rabid fox clamped to her arm before driving to hospital for live-saving inoculations. Or the woman who was attacked by a hyena, dragged from her tent by her face and survived to tell of her ordeal. 
 
The dangers of the animal kingdom are the stuff of legend but the reality of man's vulnerability and of nature's savage power is far more various, improbable and chilling than even the most active imagination would fear. In this unique work of nature writing, you will encounter the most formidable predators on land and sea - as well as the most overlooked, bizarre and inventive hazards that mother nature has to offer. Meet the cougar that can leap 40 feet and clear 8-foot fences with a fully-grown deer in its jaws, the tapeworm that's been known to grow as long as 82 feet in the human gut and the elephant that single-handedly destroyed an oil tanker. 
 
Drawing on an enormous host of true encounters between man and beast, this is the world's most authoritative compendium of animal attacks on human beings. With mordant wit and expert timing, Gordon Grice provides a gripping journey to the dark side of the animal kingdom and a celebration of its humbling, savage glory. 
 
(Originally published in hardback as The Book of Deadly Animals.)

Deadly Animals

Savage Encounters Between Man and Beast

John Gray

SUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN and TLS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 
 
At the heart of all human experience lies our obsession with death. For many years we turned to religion for answers, but with the twentieth century came ideas from evolution and politics to suggest that our lives - and afterlives - were in our own hands. Such ideas went on to have both trivial and terrible effects: from a sweeping craze of séances to the mass-murders of the Stalinist terror. 
 
Gray raises vital questions about the 'truths' science can offer, the technology we are still exploiting for immortality - and exactly what it means to be human.

The Immortalization Commission

The Strange Quest to Cheat Death

Tariq Ramadan

'This book is a journey, and an initiation.' 
 
In a world so full of different beliefs and viewpoints, how can we find peace in our shared humanity? 
 
The Quest for Meaning will take you on a journey to discover the profound truths that bind us all together. 
 
Acclaimed thinker and philosopher Tariq Ramadan explores universal ideas such as love, respect, truth and tolerance, and examines questions such as how can men and women relate to each other? What is the true nature of equality? What does 'civilization' really mean? In doing so, he opens our minds to a new view of humanity.

The Quest for Meaning

Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism

Scott Atran

Scott Atran has spent years talking to terrorists - from Gaza and Afghanistan, to Indonesia and Europe. Here he argues persuasively that to understand religious violence we need to consider terrorists' close relationships, with family and friends, as much as the causes they espouse. He delivers a fascinating journey into the mindsets of radicalised people in the twenty-first century, and deep insights into the history of all religions.

Talking to the Enemy

Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What it Means to Be Human

Joyce Tyldesley

'This readable anthology is a good introduction to a civilization that fascinates like few others ... in this book there are animals who talk, princesses who are locked up at the top of towers, wicked stepmothers and many other themes ... An enjoyable book by a skilled author' Financial Times 
 
The civilization we know as Ancient Egypt stretched over three thousand years. What was life like for ancient Egyptians? What were their beliefs - and how different were they from ours? Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt uses Egypt's vivid narratives to create a panorama of its history, from the earliest settlers to the time of Cleopatra. 
 
Gathered from pyramid texts, archaeological finds and contemporary documents, these stories cover everything from why the Nile flooded annually to Egyptian beliefs about childbirth and what happened after death. They show us what life was really like for rich and poor, man and woman, farmer and pharaoh. 
 
Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt brings a long-dead culture back to life.

The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt

Eliza Griswold

The tenth parallel - the line of latitude seven hundred miles north of the equator - is a geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide. 
 
Across much of inland Africa and Asia, from Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, live more than half of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, and sixty percent of the world's 2 billion Christians. The space between the equator and the tenth parallel marks the end of Africa's arid north and the beginning of sub-Saharan jungle; in Southeast Asia, the encounter between the two religions is also driven by wind and weather, as the trade winds carried merchants of both faiths across the sea, and the clash of hot and cold air creates the hurricanes that travel across the earth to hit Latin and North American soil. On both sides of the line, the religions and their people are experiencing reawakenings of faith - and in their buzzing megacities and swarming jungle, the encounters between the two faiths is shaping the future. 
 
Eliza Griswold, award-winning investigative journalist and poet, has spent the past seven years travelling the space between the equator and the tenth parallel, exploring the meanings and ramifications of this reawakening of faith, in a place where these changes may alter the future of what's called the Global South - and, in turn, the West. In each country along the faultline, she asks if it is possible to determine where faith ended and secular violence began, or what role religion actually plays in struggles over resources and political power. The story of this encounter between religions unfolds over nearly two thousand years and more than 600,000 square miles. 
 
An urgent examination of the relationship between faith and worldly power, The Tenth Parallel is an essential work about the conflicts over religion, nationhood and natural resources that will remake the world in the years to come.

The Tenth Parallel

Dispatches from the Faultline Between Christianity and Islam

Christianity, one of the world's great religions, has had an incalculable impact on human history. This book, now the most comprehensive and up to date single volume work in English, describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has changed politics, sex, and human society. 
 
Diarmaid MacCulloch ranges from Palestine in the first century to India in the third, from Damascus to China in the seventh century and from San Francisco to Korea in the twentieth. He is one of the most widely travelled of Christian historians and conveys a sense of place as arrestingly as he does the power of ideas. He presents the development of Christian history differently from any of his predecessors. He shows how, after a semblance of unity in its earliest centuries, the Christian church divided during the next 1400 years into three increasingly distanced parts, of which the western Church was by no means always the most important: he observes that at the end of the first eight centuries of Christian history, Baghdad might have seemed a more likely capital for worldwide Christianity than Rome. This is the first truly global history of Christianity.

A History of Christianity

The First Three Thousand Years

Theodor Herzl

'We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes' 
 
Theodor Herzl's passionate advocacy of the founding of a Jewish state grew out of his conviction that Jews would never be assimilated into the populations in which they lived. Herzl concluded that the only solution for the majority of Jews would be organised emigration to a state of their own. 
 
Herzl's political and social plea was the result of centuries of restrictions, hostility and pogroms against the Jews of Europe. His revolutionary proposal for the solution to anti-Semitism was a Jewish state, where Jews could live in peace, free from persecution - and this hugely influential essay led directly to the creation of Israel. 
 
GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

The Jewish State

Comprehensive, informative and authoritative, The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions is compiled by a team of leading international scholars, and is the definitive guide to the religious belief systems and practices of the world today. This in-depth survey of active religions has now been fully updated to include modern developments and the most recent scholarship. It explains the sources and history of the world's religions, includes material on the phenomenon of Black African and Asian diaspora religions around the world and explores the role of gender in modern religion.

The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions

The Nativity, Passion and Resurrection are the three defining episodes in the life of Jesus, forming the foundations of the Christian tradition. But what is the truth behind these epoch-making events? 
 
Geza Vermes is one of the world's most respected bibilical historians. Bringing together his three acclaimed works on the life of Jesus in one volume, this book examines the circumstances surrounding the miraculous birth of Jesus, from the prophetic star to Herod's murderous decree; looks afresh at the arrest, trial and execution of this Jewish charismatic; and finally analyses Jesus' crucifixion and the subsequent sightings of him by his disciples. 
 
Drawing on the New Testament, Jewish documents and sources from classical literature and history, these works separate myth from fact to penetrate the deeper meanings of the story of Christ.

Jesus

Nativity - Passion - Resurrection

Miri Rubin

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of the most powerful, influential and complex of all religious figures. The focus for women, the inspiration of faith, the subject of innumerable paintings, sculptures, pieces of music and churches, Mary is so entangled in our world that it is impossible to conceive of the history of Western culture and religion without her. Mother of God is the story of that presence and a book that raises profound questions about the human experience.

Mother of God

A History of the Virgin Mary

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, Palestine, in 1947 was one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and hidden in caves by an ancient Jewish sect, these mysterious manuscripts revolutionized our understanding of the Bible, of Judaism and the early Christian world. 
 
Geza Vermes is the world's leading Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, whose English translations brought these extraordinary documents to thousands, and whose life has been inextricably interwoven with the scrolls for over sixty years. In this illuminating book he relates the controversial story of their discovery and publication around the world, revealing cover-ups, blunders and academic in-fighting, but also the passion and dedication of many of those involved. He shares what he has learned about the scrolls and, evaluating passages from them, gives his views on their true significance and what they can teach us, as well as those areas where scholarly consensus has not yet been reached. 
 
Few scholars have been as closely associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls as Vermes. Writing with candour and unique authority, he has created an ideal introduction to understanding these miraculous documents.

The Story of the Scrolls

The miraculous discovery and true significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Robin Lane Fox

This remarkable and original book proposes a new way of thinking about the Greeks and their myths in the age of the great Homeric hymns. It combines a lifetime's familiarity with Greek literature and history with the latest archeological discoveries and the author's own journeys to the main sites in the story to describe how particular Greeks of the eighth century BC travelled east and west around the Mediterranean, and how their extraordinary journeys shaped their ideas of their gods and heroes. It gathers together stories and echoes from many different ancient cultures, not just the Greek - Assyria, Egypt, the Phoenician traders - and ranges from Mesopotamia to the Rio Tinto at Huelva in modern Portugal.

Travelling Heroes

Greeks and their myths in the epic age of Homer

Lao Tzu

Fundamental to Chinese philosophy and religion, the Tao Te Ching is a simple guidebook for virtue, encouraging peace, understanding and humility. Ranging from political advice to common wisdom, it has also served as an inspiration to artists across the ages and throughout the world. 
 
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Tao Te Ching

Various contributors

This overview of the religious customs of ancient cultures boasts an international selection of contributors, all of whom are leading scholars in their field. The cultural practices of popular as well as formal religion are explored in detail, giving an impression of all, not only elite societies. Every topic is placed in its own cultural context, while bearing in mind its relevance to a wider historical and sociological debate. The result is an erudite and thoroughly readable handbook to ancient religions, from Palaeolithic cave art to the rituals of Aztec and Inca civilizations.

The Penguin Handbook of Ancient Religions

Various

These are unique stories of timeless wisdom and understanding from the Zen Masters. With rich and fascinating tales of swords, tigers, tea, flowers and dogs, the writings of the Masters challenge every perception - and seek to bring all readers closer to enlightenment. 
 
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Writings from the Zen Masters

Jennifer March

What were the twelve labours of Herakles? Why did Zeus turn himself into a shower of gold? What was the name of the guard-dog of the Underworld? Which two-faced Roman god gave his name to the month January? What is the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx? 
 
The myths of ancient Greece and Rome are the most dramatic and unforgettable tales of love, war, heroism and betrayal ever told. Whether it's Ikaros flying too close to the sun, Prometheus stealing fire from the gods or the tragedy of Oedipus, their characters have inspired art, literature, plays and films, and constellations named after them fill the night sky. But how much do you really know about them? 
 
From the clash of the Titans to the fall of Troy, here are the greatest legends of all time, brilliantly retold by classical scholar Jenny March. All the heroes, monsters, villains, gods and goddesses of classical civilization are included; the epic journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas; the founding of Athens and Rome; the quests of Jason seeking the Golden Fleece and Theseus slaying the minotaur. Giving the origins, development and interpretation of each myth, this is the essential guide to the stories that have shaped our world.

The Penguin Book of Classical Myths

Athenian

Atlantia

Avalon

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BBC Classics

BBC Earth

BBC Radio’s The Lord of the Rings

BBC TV Soundtracks

BP Animation

Baby Touch

Ballroom Girls

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Be More...

Bear Mountain Rescue Series

Beasts of Prey

The complete boxed collection of Beatrix Potter's beloved Peter Rabbit books

Beatrix Potter Originals

Beautiful Creatures

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Bel Dame Apocrypha

Bella Wallis Victorian Mysteries

Belle

Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom

Bergman Brothers

Big Ideas for Little Philosophers

Bill Clinton & James Patterson stand-alone thrillers

Bill Smith / Lydia Chin

Bim Blake

Bindi Babes

Tim and Biscuit, two unlikely friends, always seem to get themselves into difficult situations. From their first meeting in Cliffhanger, where bookish Tim is forced to endure an activities camp, to Buried Alive, where a quiet camping holiday turns out to be full of surprises, there is never a dull moment with these two around.Jaqueline Wilson’s hilarious duo of books catalogues their escapades, triumphs and failures, with a good helping of snacks along the way!

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