Heidi Perks is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Now You See Her, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Come Back for Me, Three Perfect Liars, The Whispers and The Other Guest. The Last Resort is her sixth novel. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime and thrillers and is fascinated by the darker side of our closest relationships. Heidi lives in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.

Heidi Perks

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Marc Morris

This is the first major biography for a generation of a truly formidable king. Edward I is familiar to millions as 'Longshanks', conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace ('Braveheart'). Edward was born to rule England, but believed that it was his right to rule all of Britain. His reign was one of the most dramatic of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale, and leaving a legacy of division that has lasted from his day to our own. 
 
In his astonishingly action-packed life, Edward defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled across Europe to the Holy Land on crusade; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers, and constructed - at Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris and Caernarfon - the most magnificent chain of castles ever created. After the death of his first wife he erected the Eleanor Crosses - the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.

A Great and Terrible King

Edward I and the Forging of Britain

Anna Quindlen

'The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old.' 
 
For eighteen years Fran Benedetto kept her secret, hid her bruises. She stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father, and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son's face, Fran finally made a choice - she ran for both their lives. 
 
Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. She uses a name that isn't hers, watches over her son, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up with her. Bobby always said he would never let her go, and Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: it is only a matter of time.

Black And Blue

Alexandra Heminsley

_____________________________ 
'If you've ever wept, "Why Do I Want To Run?", your answer is here.' CAITLIN MORAN 
 
Alexandra Heminsley had high hopes: the arse of an athlete, the waist of a supermodel, the speed of a gazelle. Defeated by gyms and bored of yoga, she decided to run. 
 
Her first attempt did not end well. 
 
Six years later, she has run five marathons in two continents. 
 
But, as her dad says, you run with your head as much as with your legs. So, while this is a book about running, it's not just about running. 
 
You could say it's about ambition (yes, getting out of bed on a rainy Sunday morning counts), relationships (including talking to the intimidating staff in the trainer shop), as well as your body (your boobs don't have to wobble when you run). But it's also about realising that you can do more than you ever thought possible. 
 
Very funny, very honest and very emotional, whether you're in serious training or thinking about running for the bus, this is a book for anyone who after wine and crisps for supper a few too many times thinks they might . . . just might . . . like to run like a girl. 
_____________________________ 
Here's what people are saying about Running Like A Girl - and what it's inspired them to do! 
 
'This book has changed my attitude, I loved it from page one and found it totally relatable for the normal woman... A real inspiration' - Clairol on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'I adored this book... this is a must read' - Emily on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'really opened my eyes and inspired me to continue running, fantastic read' - Kiyone on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'I was so happy to start reading this fabulous book and realise that there was someone else out there who thought exactly as I did about 'not being a runner'' - J. Watson on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'It's not often I find a book that I can't put down and this is the first for ages! ... this book echoes so many of my own limiting beliefs constructed around this subject and it was a delight to hear how Alex faced up to her own demons and finally freed her running spirit. Even if you never want to be a runner this is a fun read and an inspirational journey.' - Joy on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'Inspirational... Would recommend this book to anyone thinking of running! Very well put together and has lots of information and tips' - Maria on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'I laughed out loud... for anyone wanting to get into running you will be thinking of Alexandra when you are out there taking your first few strides, and you will be grinning!' - J. Dunne on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'The best thing about it is how inspiring the journey it is, how much it makes you want to get out there and run yourself. Such a fantastic aid to the beginning of your running journey' - Emma on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'I have been fighting with my running demons for over 12 months and had convinced myself that I couldn't run. This book has inspired me to put my trainers on, join a club and enter three events' - Chimaera on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'Laugh-out-loud funny in places but real, genuine experience of the world of running from someone who's been there, picked up the battered trainers and just run with it' - Helen on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
'hilarious - it just kept me hooked!' - Denise on Amazon, 5 stars

Running Like a Girl

'Remarkable' Observer 
'A joy to read' Daily Telegraph 
'Soaringly beautiful' Sunday Times Magazine 
'Genuine and persuasive' Guardian 
 
Alexandra Heminsley thought she could swim. She really did. 
 
It may have been because she could run. It may have been because she wanted to swim; or perhaps because she only ever did ten minutes of breaststroke at a time. But, as she learned one day while flailing around in the sea, she really couldn’t. 
 
Believing that a life lived fully isn’t one with the most money earned, the most stuff bought or the most races won, but one with the most experiences, experienced the most fully, she decided to conquer her fear of the water. 
 
From the ignominy of getting into a wetsuit to the triumph of swimming from Kefalonia to Ithaca, in becoming a swimmer, Alexandra learns to appreciate her body and still her mind. As it turns out, the water is never as frightening once you're in, and really, everything is better when you remember to exhale. 
 
 
What Hemmo's readers are saying: 
 
‘This book is funny, engaging, entertaining, informative, suspenseful, motivating, and inspiring... I've never read anything quite like it’ 
 ­– Nina on Goodreads, 5 stars 
 
 ‘Just like Running Like a Girl, this was an absolute joy to read. A beautifully written story of swimming, family and being a woman’ 
 – Violet on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
‘Fantastic book… Entertaining – often laugh-out-loud funny – and full of really useful advice’ 
 – J. Edwards on Amazon, 5 stars 
 
‘A fabulous book that’s beautifully written’ 
 – Nik on Goodreads, 5 stars 
 
‘I can't recommend this book enough! I absolutely love Alexandra Heminsley's writing, her attitude towards exercise and her passion for swimming’ 
 – Sarah on Goodreads, 5 stars 
 
‘an inspirational and encouraging read’ 
 – Stephanie on Goodreads, 5 stars 
 
‘the author’s enthusiasm is contagious… one cannot help but yearn to join in. … A thoroughly inspiring book with a likeable narrator unafraid to share her personal life’ 
 – Eleanor on Goodreads, 5 stars 
 
 ‘This is a delightful book, a pleasure to read… Unbelievably well written, it flows like the water she loves’ 
 ­– Bobby on Amazon, 5 stars

Leap In

A Woman, Some Waves, and the Will to Swim

Jess Phillips

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY BOOK AWARDS 
 
‘Jess Phillips writes like she talks: brilliantly. Her humour and passion shine through every page. Loved it.’ ROBERT WEBB 
_____________________ 
If you’re thinking, ‘Jess who?’ then I’m glad that there was something about ‘Everywoman’ and ‘truth’ that caught your eye. 
 
Or you might already know me as that gobby MP who has a tendency to shout about the stuff I care about. Because I’m a woman with a cause, I have been called a feminazi witch, a murderer and threatened with rape. The internet attracts a classy crowd. 
 
So, speaking the truth isn’t always easy but I believe it’s worth it. And I want you to believe it too. The truth can be empowering, the truth can lead to greater equality, and the world would be incredibly boring if we let all of those people who allegedly know everything, say everything. 
 
By demanding to be heard, by dealing with our imposter syndrome, by being cheerleaders, doers not sayers, creating our own networks and by daring to believe that we can make a difference, we can. 
 
We’re women and we’re kick-ass. And that’s the truth. 
_____________________ 
'Joyfully candid and very funny.' Guardian 
 
'Jess Phillips knows the truth . . . and here she shows how scary and sad as well as joyful and liberating the answers can be.' Damian Barr 
 
'Everywoman has all the laughs [of Lena Dunham and Caitlin Moran] with a backbone of real glinting anger . . .there were so many funny and wise things on each page that whittling them down into a review seemed impossible.' Julie Birchill, Spectator 
 
'As fresh as mountain air amid the Westminster tumbleweed.' Metro 
 
'Arresting.' Observer 
_____________________ 
This title now has a new cover and there is a chance that you may receive the edition with the old cover instead of the cover displayed here.

Everywoman

One Woman’s Truth About Speaking the Truth

Pandora Sykes

__________________ 
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
Stop searching for the answers - and start delighting in the questions with Pandora Sykes, co-host of The High Low podcast. 
 
'Deliciously fascinating' MARIAN KEYES 
'Refreshing ... thoughtful, considered' STYLIST 
'Brilliant' EVENING STANDARD 
'Timely and fulsome' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS 
'Joyful and wise' LISA TADDEO 
 
Modern life is full of choices - but how do we know we're making the right ones? Why, in our attempts to make life easier, do we often make it harder? 
 
With a light touch and plenty of humour, Pandora Sykes delves into the myths we've been sold and the stories we tell ourselves, in a timely bid to encourage us to consider the lives we once led, and how they might better serve us. It's time to stop looking for the answers - and start delighting in the questions. 
__________________ 
'Thoughtful and funny' DOLLY ALDERTON 
 
'Like a very clever, lucid, charming friend unpacking all the messy anxieties of modern existence with tremendous intelligence and elan. Read this book. It will help your life' INDIA KNIGHT 
 
'Had me cackling. So smart but so well-researched' CANDICE BRATHWAITE 
 
'Energetic and compelling' OLIVIA SUDJIC 
 
'Navigates complicated issues with great humanity, humour and humility ... [it] left me wanting more' SATHNAM SANGHERA 
 
'Self-aware, self-deprecating, relatable, funny, and brilliantly curious' STACEY DOOLEY 
 
'Witty and zeitgeisty ... strikes a fresh, honest note' VANITY FAIR 
__________________ 
Readers love Pandora's first book: 
 
'A truly marvellous debut' 
'Insightful and beautifully written' 
'Totally brilliant ... I devoured this masterpiece in one sitting' 
'A bright book in a gloomy year' 
'Feeling a lot better about life after finishing this!' 
'I adored Pandora's book and will be thinking about it for a long time.' 
'So clever and thought-provoking' 
'Pandora is a wonderful writer and I found myself unexpectedly in tears by the end' 
 
INCLUDES A NEW PROLOGUE

How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?

And Other Thoughts On Modern Life

Jasmin Darznik

'With this one word, Lili had finally understood many things: that no matter what she promised or sacrificed or gave, she would always be 'broken' to her daughter.' 
 
When Jasmin Darznik finds a photo among her father's possessions shortly after his death, she recognises the child in the veil and bride's clothes as her mother, Lili, but the groom is unfamiliar. 
 
Who had her mother married all those years before? A few months later Lili sends Jasmin ten cassette tapes which reveal the secret history of their family: the true story of the abusive man she married, and the daughter she was forced to leave behind. 
 
This is an unforgettable story of secrets, betrayal and exile, and of an unshakeable mother-daughter bond.

The Good Daughter

My Mother's Hidden Life

Ruth Whippman

'Essential reading. So funny, so relevant, so fascinating ... I loved it' Marian Keyes 
 
'A whip-sharp British Bill Bryson' Sunday Times 
 
'Ruth Whippman is my new favorite cultural critic, and her book was such a joy to read' Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B (co-authored with Sheryl Sandberg) 
 
When British journalist Ruth Whippman moved to America it seemed that everyone she met was obsessed with one thing: finding happiness. Americans spend more money and energy on becoming happier than anyone on earth, but yet they are some of the least happy people in the developed world. 
 
So Ruth sets off on a journey to work out what’s going wrong, and most importantly, what lessons we can all learn about what truly makes for a happy life. 
 
From nearly falling apart during a controversial self-help course promising total transformation, to investigating a 'happiness city' in the Nevada desert, from spending time with the Mormons in Utah to exploring the darker truths behind the positive psychology movement, Ruth tries it all. Along the way she stumbles upon a more effective, less anxiety inducing path to contentment.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Why are we driving ourselves crazy and how can we stop?

Zaiba Malik

For Zaiba Malik, growing up in Bradford in the '70s and '80s certainly has its moments - staying up all night during Ramadan with her father; watching mad Mr Aziz searching for his goat during Eid; dancing along to Top of the Pops (so long as no-one's watching). And, of course, there's her mother - whether she's writing another ingratiating letter to the Queen or repeatedly referring to Tom Jones as 'Thumb Jone'. 
 
But Zaiba's story is also one of anxiety and seemingly irreconcilable opposites. Growing up she is constantly torn between two identities: 'British' and 'Muslim'. Alienated at school and confused at home, the racism she encounters as a child mirrors the horrors she experiences at the hands of Bangladeshi interrogators 
as a journalist years later. 
 
We Are A Muslim, Please is a stirring and enchanting memoir. We see, through Zaiba's childhood eyes, the poignancy of growing up in a world whose prejudices, contradictions and ambiguities are at once distressing and utterly captivating.

We Are a Muslim, Please

Lara Prescott

________________________ 
'Utterly compelling... I absolutely loved it' Sarah Winman 
'Tantalising' Sunday Times 
'Thoroughly enjoyable' Guardian 
________________________ 
No one looks twice at the women in the typing pool. 
 
No one knows that two of them are trading secrets. 
 
The secret is a book, the size of the one in your hands, and within its pages, a love story that could change the world. 
 
But where there is love there is pain. And where there is deception, formidable danger... 
________________________ 
'Mixing Mad Men and John le Carré ... addictive' i paper 
 
'Irresistibly charged' Mail on Sunday

The Secrets We Kept

The sensational Cold War spy thriller

T. Christian Miller

________________________________________ 
The real-life investigation behind the hit Netflix series, from two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists. 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD 
 
She said she was raped. 
Police said she lied. 
She was made to retract the report – but the nightmare only got worse. 
 
On 11 August 2008, eighteen-year-old Marie reported that a masked man had broken into her home and raped her. Within days, police – and even those closest to Marie – became suspicious of her story. Confronted by these minor inconsistencies and doubt, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie. The police charged her with making a false report. 
 
Two years later, Colorado detective Stacy Galbraith was assigned to a case of sexual assault. It bore an eerie resemblance to a rape that had taken place months earlier in a nearby town. Joining forces with the detective on that case, Edna Hendershot, the two soon discovered they were dealing with a serial rapist. As their investigation deepened, it became clear that numerous police departments had extremely similar cases on their hands – and that Marie's story bore an eerie resemblance to the cases they were investigating. 
 
Unbelievable is a chilling tale of doubt, lies, and the hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing reality of how sexual assault is investigated and the long history of scepticism toward its victims. 
________________________________________ 
Previously published as A False Report

Unbelievable

The shocking truth behind the hit Netflix series

Clemantine Wamariya

Elizabeth Weil

A riveting story of dislocation, survival, and the power of stories to break or save us 
 
When Clemantine Wamariya was six years old, her world was torn apart. She didn't know why her parents began talking in whispers, or why her neighbours started disappearing, or why she could hear distant thunder even when the skies were clear. 
 
As the Rwandan civil war raged, Clemantine and her sister Claire were forced to flee their home. They ran for hours, then walked for days, not towards anything, just away. they sought refuge where they could find it, and escaped when refuge became imprisonment. Together, they experienced the best and the worst of humanity. After spending six years seeking refuge in eight different countries, Clemantine and Claire were granted refugee status in America and began a new journey. 
 
Honest, life-affirming and searingly profound, this is the story of a girl's struggle to remake her life and create new stories - without forgetting the old ones. 
____________________________________ 
'Extraordinary and heartrending. Wamariya is as fiercely talented as she is courageous' JUNOT DIAZ, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 
 
'Brilliant ... has captivated me for a couple of years' SELMA BLAIR

The Girl Who Smiled Beads

Katie Waldegrave

Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge, were life-long friends. They were also the daughters of best friends: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the two poetic geniuses who shaped the Romantic Age. 
 
Living in the shadow of their fathers’ extraordinary fame brought Sara and Dora great privilege, but at a terrible cost. In different ways, each father almost destroyed his daughter. Growing up in the shadow of genius, each girl made it her life’s ambition to dedicate herself to her father’s writing and reputation. Anorexia, drug addiction and depression were part of the legacy of fame, but so too were great friendship and love. 
 
Drawing on a host of new sources, Katie Waldegrave tells the never-before-told story of how two young women, born into greatness, shaped their own legacies.

The Poets' Daughters

Dora Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge

Steven Carroll

In 1960 the West Indies arrive in Australia and Michael, who is sixteen, is enthralled. If, like his heroes, he has the gift of speed, he will move beyond his suburb into the great world ... 
 
As his summer unfolds, Michael realises that there are other ways to live. When the calypso chorus accompanying Frank Worrell and his team fades, Michael has leartn many things ... about his parents, a girl called Kathleen Marsden, and about himself. 
 
The Gift of Speed is a masterful blend of story-telling, memorable characters and a uniquely Australian sensibility by a novelist at the height of his powers.

The Gift of Speed

In Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, New York Times bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize Anna Quindlen shares the events of her own life to illuminate our own. From childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, Quindlen tells life as she has lived it. She acknowledges the passing years, from the generational shrinking of underwear to facing the fact that her knees make ’this noise like Rice Krispies’ when she exercises. Despite its downsides, she says, aging brings wisdom, and a perspective that makes life satisfying and even joyful. Honest, witty and moving, this irresistible memoir celebrates all our lives.

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

Azar Nafisi

From the author of the bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran comes a powerful and passionate case for the vital role of fiction today. 
 
Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating follow-up, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society. 
 
Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her at a reading, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us today. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favourite novels, she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination', a country where the villains are conformity, and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

The Republic of Imagination

Carys Bray

'A powerful and truthful story about hope and how to find it' The Times 
'A gem of a book' Emily Maitlis 
 
Emma's husband Chris is fretting about starvation and societal collapse. He's turned off the heating and is stockpiling off-label medicines and tins of baked beans. 
 
Chris, certain that society will soon spiral to its doom, finds Emma's optimism exasperating. Emma finds Chris's obsession with disaster relentless. She's beginning to wonder whether relationships, like mortgages, should be conducted in five-year increments. But when Chris's mother turns up for a visit, the cracks begin to show. Will Emma and Chris be able to find their way back to each other?

When the Lights Go Out

Chloe Combi

Featured on the Podcast You Don't Know Me hosted by Chloe Combi - an exploration into the lives of global Gen Z 
 
'An important and timely book. These are voices that need to be heard.' - Anthony Horowitz 
 
The world is changing by the day. Today's teenagers are growing up in a world of widening social inequality, political apathy and economic uncertainty. 
 
They join gangs, and are kind. 
They're obese, and they're more health-conscious than any generation before. 
They have underage sex, and they're less likely to get pregnant young. 
They drink, and they go teetotal. 
They watch porn, and they shun it. 
They go to church, and they have no religion. 
They're a menace to society. They are society. 
 
Curious, creative and worried about the future, Generation Z have grown up in a world of unprecedented connection, and ever-increasing division. Chloe Combi has travelled around the UK, talking with teenagers from all kinds of backgrounds about their lives, their fears and their dreams, uncovering some truly surprising stories about a generation often stereotyped and dismissed. 
 
Told in their voices, Generation Z is a shocking, enlightening and funny portrait of how it feels to be young in modern Britain, and what it takes to survive and thrive on the journey to adulthood.

Generation Z

Their Voices, Their Lives

Elena Gorokhova

A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a young Soviet girl's discovery of the hidden truths of adulthood and her country's profound political deception. 
 
Elena, born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, finds her passion in the complexity of the English language - but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s, such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena's home is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars. Instead, it is a nation humiliated by its first faltering steps after World War II, putting up appearances for the sake of its regime and fighting to retain its pride. 
 
In this deeply affecting memoir, Elena re-creates the world that both oppressed and inspired her. She recounts stories passed down to her about the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution and probes the daily deprivations and small joys of her family's bunkerlike existence. Through Elena's captivating voice, we learn not only the personal story of Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose love of a foreign language finally transports her to a new world. 
 
'This moving memoir made me cry' 
The New York Times

A Mountain of Crumbs

Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

John Szwed

Today, Billie Holiday is an icon – an artist whose voice has weathered countless shifts in public taste, and whose impact on contemporary music is unquestionable. But when eighteen-year-old Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia studios in November of 1933 to record ‘Riffin’ the Scotch’ and ‘Your Mother’s Son-in-Law’, no one could predict the sensation that was about to emerge; marking the beginning of what is arguably the most remarkable and important career in twentieth-century popular music. 
 
Drawing on revelatory new material, including unpublished memoirs and interviews, Billie Holiday is the first account to consider the singer as an artist, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy.

Billie Holiday

Jennifer Eberhardt

'Jennifer Eberhardt makes it clear that racism operates at all levels, and it fills me with hope to know that she is fighting it at all levels. More power to you, sister. The world needs you.' BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH 
 
'Poignant... striking... important and illuminating.' NEW YORK TIMES 
______________________ 
No matter how fair-minded we think we are, we still don't treat people equally. 
Why not? 
 
Every day, unconscious biases affect our visual perception, attention, memory and behaviour in ways that are subtle and very difficult to recognise without in-depth scientific studies. In a single interaction, they might slip by unnoticed. Over thousands of interactions, they become a huge and powerful force. 
 
Jennifer Eberhardt is a pioneering social psychologist one of the world's leading experts on unconscious bias. In this landmark book, she lays out how these biases affect every sector of society, leading to enormous disparities from the classroom to the courtroom to the boardroom. 
 
But unconscious bias is not a sin to be condemned. It's a universal human condition, and as Eberhardt shows, one that can - and must - be overcome. 
______________________ 
'A critically important book.' DAVID OLUSOGA, author of Black and British 
 
'Groundbreaking... essential reading for anyone interested in how we become a more just society.' BRYAN STEVENSON, author of Just Mercy 
 
'This book should be required reading for everyone.' ROBIN DIANGELO, author of White Fragility 
 
'Jennifer Eberhardt's ground-breaking work has the power to shift the debate and help shape a fairer society.' DAVID LAMMY MP 
 
'Jennifer Eberhardt gives us the opportunity to talk about race in new ways, ultimately transforming our thinking about ourselves and the world we want to create.' MICHELLE ALEXANDER, author of The New Jim Crow 
 
'An illuminating and readable account of how racial stereotypes and assumptions can cause social devastation and keep huge inequalities in place.' DR PRIYAMVADA GOPAL, University of Cambridge 
 
'Read this book. Biased will enlighten your journey through race relations and associations.' DAWN BUTLER MP

Biased

Dan Cruickshank

Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art, but it was also a city where prostitution was rife, houses of ill repute widespread, and many tens of thousands of people dependent in some way or other on the wages of sin. The sex industry was, in fact, a very powerful force indeed, and in The Secret History of Georgian London, Dan Cruickshank compellingly shows how it came to affect almost every aspect of life and culture in the capital. 
 
Examining the nature of the sex trade, he offers a tantalising insight into the impact of prostitution to give us vivid portraits of some of the women who became involved in its world. And he discusses the very varied attitudes of contemporaries - those who sympathised, those who indulged, and those who condemned. As he powerfully argues, these women, and many thousands like them, not only shaped eighteenth-century London, they also helped determine its future development.

The Secret History of Georgian London

How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING 
 
‘Incredibly powerful … by the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regret, love and hurt of a real life.’ Alan Alda 
 
‘The possibility of leaving Russia was never as thrilling as the prospect of leaving my mother.’ 
 
When Elena Gorokhova arrives in America, the only link back to her Russian past is a suitcase filled with twenty kilograms of what used to be her life. Navigating a country she had been taught to fear, Elena begins to carve out a new life in an unfamiliar world. 
 
Before the birth of Elena's daughter, her mother comes to visit and stays for twenty-four years. Elena, must struggle with the challenge of raising an American daughter whilst living with her controlling mother, a mirror image of her Motherland. 
 
Russian Tattoo is the story of what it means to be an outsider, and what happens when the cultures of our past and present collide. Above all, it is an insightful portrait of mothers and daughters.

Russian Tattoo

Jo Marchant

In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown off course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck near the island of Antikythera dating from around 70 BC. 
 
Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock, which turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from antiquity. For more than a century this 'Antikythera mechanism' - an ancient computer - puzzled academics, but now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings. 
 
In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the story of the 100-year quest to understand the Antikythera mechanism. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters - ranging from Archimedes to Jacques Cousteau - and explores the deep roots of modern technology not only in Ancient Greece, the Islamic world and medieval Europe.

Decoding the Heavens

How the Antikythera Mechanism Changed The World

In Azar Nafisi's personal story of growing up in Iran, she shares her memories of a life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a country's political revolution. 
 
Nafisi's intelligent and complicated mother, disappointed in her dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerising fictions about herself, her family, and her past. But her daughter soon learned that these narratives of triumph hid as much as they revealed. When her father began to see other women, young Azar began to keep his secrets from her mother. Nafisi's complicity in these childhood dramas ultimately led her to resist remaining silent about other personal - as well as political, cultural, and social - injustices. 
 
Things I've Been Silent About is also a powerful historical picture of a family that spans the many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. This unforgettable portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland is a new triumph from a modern master of the memoir.

Things I've Been Silent About

Memories of a Prodigal Daughter

Tony Fletcher

'I was no longer fitting in at school. I was unsure of my friends, and they were increasingly unsure of me. I wanted to be a rock star. But while all around, voices were starting to break, acne beginning to appear, facial hair sprouting, I remained all flabby flesh and innate scruff, with a high-pitched whine and not a muscle to my name. I was the runt of the class and rarely allowed to forget it. I had no father at home to help me out, and could hardly talk to my mum. So I took solace in The Jam.' 
 
As a boy, Tony Fletcher frequently felt out of place. Yet somehow he secured a ringside seat for one of the most creative periods in British cultural history. 
 
Boy About Town tells the story of the bestselling author’s formative years in the pre- and post-punk music scenes of London, counting down, from fifty to number one: attendance at seminal gigs and encounters with musical heroes; schoolboy projects that became national success stories; the style culture of punks, mods and skinheads and the tribal violence that enveloped them; life as a latchkey kid in a single-parent household; weekends on the football terraces in a quest for street credibility; and the teenage boy’s unending obsession with losing his virginity. 
 
Boy About Town is an evocative, bittersweet, amusing and wholly original account of growing up and coming of age in the glory days of the 1970s.

Boy About Town

Anthony Sattin

In the winter of 1849, Florence Nightingale was an unknown 29-year-old - beautiful, well-born and deeply unhappy. After clashing with her parents over her refusal to marry, she had been offered a lifeline by family friends who suggested a trip to Egypt, a country which she had always longed to visit. 
 
By an extraordinary coincidence, taking the same boat from Alexandria was an unpublished French writer, Gustave Flaubert. Like Nightingale, he was at the crossroads in his life that was to lead to future 
acclaim and literary triumph. Egypt for him represented escape and freedom as well as inspiration. 
 
But as a wealthy young man travelling with male friends, he had access to an altogether different Egpyt: where Nightingale sought out temples and dispensaries, Flaubert visited brothels and harems. 
 
In this beguiling book, Anthony Sattin takes a key moment in the lives of two extraordinary figures on the brink of international fame, and provides a fascinating insight into the early days of travel to one of 
the greatest tourist destinations on the planet.

A Winter on the Nile

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HESSELL-TILTMAN HISTORY PRIZE 2017 
 
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 
 
Religious strife, civil conflict, waves of immigration, the rise and fall of industry, great prosperity and grinding poverty – the handful of streets that constitute modern Spitalfields have witnessed all this and much more. 
 
In Spitalfields, one of Britain's best-loved historians tells the stories of the streets he has lived in for four decades. Starting in Roman times and continuing right up to the present day, Cruickshank explains how Spitalfields' streets evolved, what people have lived there, and what lives they have led. En route, he discovers the tales of the Huguenot weavers who made Spitalfields their own after the Great Fire of London. He recounts the experiences of the first Jewish immigrants. He evokes the slum-ridden courts and alleys of Jack the Ripper's Spitalfields. And he describes the transformation of the Spitalfields he first encountered in the 1970s from a war-damaged collection of semi-derelict houses to the vibrant community it is today. 
 
This is a fascinating evocation of one of London's most distinctive districts. At the same time, it is a history of England in miniature.

Spitalfields

The History of a Nation in a Handful of Streets

V. S. Ramachandran

John, aged sixty, suffered a stroke and recovered fully, except in one respect: although he can see perfectly, he can no longer recognise faces, even his own reflection in a mirror. 
 
Whenever Francesca touches a particular texture, she experiences a vivid emotion: denim = extreme sadness; wax = embarrassment; orange peel = shock. 
 
Jimmie, whose left arm was recently amputated, can still feel it - and it's itchy. 
 
Our brains are the most enchanting and complex things in the known universe - but what happens when they go wrong? Dr V. S. Ramachandran, 'the Sherlock Holmes of brain science' and one of the world's leading neuroscientists, has spent a lifetime working with patients who suffer from rare and baffling brain conditions. In The Tell-Tale Brain, he tells their stories, and explores what they reveal about the greatest mystery of them all: how our minds work, and what makes each of us so uniquely human.

The Tell-Tale Brain

Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature

Michael Scott

'This vivid and engaging book brings to life some of the most important moments in ancient history, moments that have shaped not only the politics and culture of bygone eras, but the institutions, thoughts and fantasies of our time.' Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens) 
 
'A bold and imaginative page-turner that challenges ideas about the world of antiquity.' Peter Frankopan (The Silk Roads) 
 
'As panoramic as it is learned, this is ancient history for our globalised world.' Tom Holland (Dynasty, Rubicon) 
________________________________________ 
Acclaimed historian and TV presenter Michael Scott guides us through an epic story spanning ten centuries to create a bold new reading of the classical era for our globalised world. 
 
Scott challenges our traditionally western-focused perception of the past, connecting Greco-Roman civilisation to the great rulers and empires that swept across Central Asia to India and China - resulting in a truly global vision of ancient history. 
 
With stunning range and richness Ancient Worlds illustrates how the great powers and characters of antiquity shared ambitions and crises, ways of thinking and forms of governing: connections that only grew stronger over the centuries as political systems evolved, mighty armies clashed, universal religions were born and our modern world was foreshadowed. 
 
Scott focuses on three epochal 'moments' across the ancient globe, and their profound wider significance: from 509-8 BCE (birth of Athenian democracy and Rome's republic, also the age of Confucius's teachings in China); to 218 BCE (when Hannibal of Carthage challenged Rome and China saw its first emperor); to 312 CE, when Constantine sought to impose Christianity on the Roman world even as Buddhism was pervading China via the vast trading routes we now know as the 'Silk Roads.' 
 
A major work of global history, Michael Scott's enthralling journey challenges the way we think about our past, re-draws the map of the classical age to reveal its hidden connections, and shows us how ancient history has lessons for our own times.

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