Meik Wiking founded the world's first Happiness Research Institute in 2013, in Copenhagen, Denmark and is a New York Times and Sunday Times Bestselling author. Meik has been called The Indiana Jones of Smiles and probably the World's Happiest Man by The Times. He is the author of four globally bestselling books which have sold over 2 million copies worldwide: The Little Book of Hygge, The Little Book of Lykke, The Art of Making Memories and My Hygge Home.

Meik Wiking

Sue Meikle has always been obsessed with picture books, and after working as an Early Years Specialist for over 25 years, she has read stories to children from Stockport to South Africa. In schools, in early years centres, while on forest school adventures... Sue has even read stories on a travelling play bus! So, perhaps it was always in the stars for Sue to not just read books, but write them, too! When she's not reading or writing stories, Sue can be found walking her dog or chauffeuring her teenagers around the Greater Manchester area (because that’s where they live… in a home that they made from a derelict barn!)

Sue Meikle

David Meikle is a TV scriptwriter and Sunday Times bestselling author. He has written and co-written seven books, including the autobiographies of Charlie Richardson and Bobby Cummines.

David Meikle

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Chris Ballard

It seems everywhere you look someone is dunking themselves in ice-cold water. Lizzo plunges to help with inflammation, Amy Poehler swears by her daily dunk, and Bradley Cooper even posed for a magazine shoot at his favourite dipping hole. 
 
In THE PLUNGE, intrepid journalist Chris Ballard immerses himself in this growing tribe of cold-water junkies of all ages, shapes and nationalities, meeting social circles and those trying to create a new Olympic sport. He travels to laboratories and swims in waters around the world, from Portsmouth to the Pacific, exploring evolutionary principles and ancient practices largely lost in the modern world. 
 
From cold plunge to open water swimming to ice swimming, he tests his limits in this extreme sport, eventually becoming a US national champion in the Ice Mile -- a mile-long swim in freezing water, a test of body and mind. 
 
Along the way, he explores the cutting-edge science of the benefits of cold water: how it helps with muscle recovery and soothes chronic pain, boosts feelings of alertness, contentment and energy, and can even help to treat depression and anxiety. 
 
THE PLUNGE is a rollicking, eye-opening adventure about the cure that’s freely available to all and as old as the planet itself: cold water.

The Plunge

Maverick Swimmers, An Unlikely Quest, and The Transformative Power of Cold Water

Qian Julie Wang

In China she was the daughter of professors. In Brooklyn her family is 'illegal.' 
 
Qian is seven when she moves to America, the 'Beautiful Country', where she and her parents find that the roads of New York City are not paved with gold, but crushing fear and scarcity. Unable to speak English at first, Qian and her parents must work wherever they can to survive, all while she battles hunger and loneliness at school. Thus begins an extraordinary story that describes days labouring in sweatshops and sushi factories, nights scavenging the streets for furniture, and the terrifying moment when the family emerges from the shadows to seek emergency medical treatment for Qian's mother. 
 
Qian Julie Wang's memoir is an unforgettable account of what it means to live under the perpetual threat of deportation and the small joys and sheer determination that kept her family afloat in a new land. Told from a child's perspective, in a voice that is intimate, poignant and startlingly lyrical, Beautiful Country is the story of a girl who learns first to live - and then escape - an invisible life.

Beautiful Country

A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood

Erling Kagge

** The North Pole: The History of an Obsession by Erling Kagge is out now ** 
 
'Erling Kagge transforms and consoles us' Alain de Botton 
____________________________ 
 
Surviving extreme conditions can teach us to lead a fulfilled life. No one knows this better than Erling Kagge, who was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth's poles by foot - the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In Philosophy for Polar Explorers he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance. 
 
In sixteen meditative but practical lessons - from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to take pleasure in the small things and comfort in solitude - Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed. 
____________________________ 
 
'His wisdom will soothe and awaken' Fearne Cotton 
 
'A delightful book that explores the strange land between getting out of bed in the morning and reaching for the moon Tristan Gooley 
 
'A wonderfully deft Swiss army knife of a book' Dan Richards 
 
'As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted' Sir Ranulph Fiennes 
 
'Erling Kagge is a philosophical adventurer - or perhaps an adventurous philosopher' The New York Times 
 
'An author for our noisy times, full of a rare and deeply redemptive languor and perspective' Alain de Botton

Philosophy for Polar Explorers

An Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving Winter

Luke Kemp

A radical retelling of human history through collapse – from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. 
 
** FEATURED IN THE NEW BBC SERIES CIVILISATIONS: RISE AND FALL ** 
** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** 
 
‘A brilliant, utterly convincing account of the evolution of human society and why we are probably reaching humanity's end days’ HENRY MARSH 
 
'Absolutely essential reading for understanding why past civilisations collapsed, and how to protect our own from the same fate' LEWIS DARTNELL 
 
For the first 300,000 years of human history, hunter-gathering Homo sapiens lived in fluid, egalitarian civilizations that thwarted any individual or group from ruling permanently. Then, around 12,000 years ago, that began to change. 
 
As we reluctantly congregated in the first farms and cities, people began to rely on novel lootable resources like grain and fish for their daily sustenance. And when more powerful weapons became available, small groups began to seize control of these valuable commodities. This inequality in resources soon tipped over into inequality in power, and we started to adopt more primal, hierarchical forms of organization. Power was concentrated in masters, kings, pharaohs and emperors (and ideologies were born to justify their rule). Goliath-like states and empires – with vast bureaucracies and militaries – carved up and dominated the globe. 
 
What brought them down? Whether in the early cities of Cahokia in North America or Tiwanaku in South America, or the sprawling empires of Egypt, Rome and China, it was increasing inequality and concentrations of power that hollowed these Goliaths out before an external shock brought them crashing down. These collapses were written up as apocalyptic, but in truth they were usually a blessing for most of the population. 
 
Now we live in a single global Goliath. Growth obsessed, extractive institutions like the fossil fuel industry, big tech and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways of annihilating our species, from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast, complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global, swift and irreversible. All of us now face a choice: we must learn to democratically control Goliath, or the next collapse may be our last. 
 
'An excellent survey of human history through the collapses of Goliath-like kings, states and empires' OBSERVER 
 
'A comprehensive overview of societal collapse, based on the analysis of dozens of cases spanning thousands of years from the Paleolithic to today. Highly recommended' PETER TURCHIN 
 
'A deeply sobering and strangely inspiring history of how societies collapse - and how we can still save ours. Read it now, or your descendants will find it in the ruins' JOHANN HARI 
 
'Like reading Thomas Piketty filtered through Mad Max' NEW YORK TIMES

Goliath’s Curse

The History and Future of Societal Collapse

Kilian Jornet Burgada

Kilian Jornet has conquered some of the toughest physical tests on the planet. He has run up and down Mt. Kilimanjaro faster than any other human being, and struck down world records in every challenge that has been proposed - all before the age of 25. Dominating ultra marathons and races at altitude, he has redefined what is possible in running, astonishing competitors with his near-superhuman fitness and ability. 
 
Inviting readers into a fascinating world rich with the beauty of rugged trails and mountain vistas, this inspiring, insightful and deeply personal book presents one simple choice: Run. Or die.

Run or Die

The Inspirational Memoir of the World's Greatest Ultra-Runner

Bruno Vincent

In The New Adventures of Old Sherlock, a brand-new series, Holmes and Watson return to the site of their most famous case – and discover someone is hounding the Baskervilles! 
 
'Highly amusing. Vincent revives the great detective, putting Victorian values on a collision course with modern mores' Lucien Young, author of Alice in Brexitland _____________________ 
Sherlock Holmes needs a holiday, so Dr Watson has taken him to Dartmoor, where they find a very changed Baskerville Hall. The gaunt, gothic mansion has gone: it’s now an eco-friendly, zero-waste yoga retreat. 
 
But trouble is (cold-)brewing beneath the solar panels. Someone is stirring up hate against the supposedly “woke” agenda at Baskerville and is sending anonymous death threats, in the form of a gun’s trigger and the word ‘BEWARE’! Even worse, there are reports that the slathering hell-hound on the moor has returned! 
 
Can Holmes and Watson negotiate the heightened emotions between different social media tribes, without getting themselves permanently cancelled – or even murdered*? 
 
*I mean looking at their track record, ‘yes’ is probably the answer, but it will be fun finding out! 
 _____________________ 
 
'This is a clever as parody gets. How Bruno Vincent has managed to maintain a Holmesian atmosphere with a machine gun gag rate is a mystery in itself. Wonderful stuff’ Ian Moore, bestselling author of Death and Croissants

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Trigger Warning

Jerry Schilling

On a lazy Sunday in 1954, twelve-year-old Jerry Schilling wandered into a Memphis touch football game, only to discover that his team was quarterbacked by a nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley, the local teenager whose first record, &quot;That&rsquo;s All Right,&quot; had just debuted on Memphis radio. The two became fast friends, even as Elvis turned into the world&rsquo;s biggest star. In 1964, Elvis invited Jerry to work for him as part of his &quot;Memphis Mafia,&quot; and Jerry soon found himself living with Elvis full-time in a Bel Air mansion and, later, in his own room at Graceland. Over the next thirteen years Jerry would work for Elvis in various capacities &mdash; from bodyguard to photo double to co-executive producer on a karate film. But more than anything else he was Elvis&rsquo;s close friend and confidant: Elvis trusted Jerry with protecting his life when he received death threats, he asked Jerry to drive him and Priscilla to the hospital the day Lisa Marie was born and to accompany him during the famous &quot;lost weekend&quot; when he traveled to meet President Nixon at the White House. 
 
Me and a Guy Named Elvis looks at Presley from a friend&rsquo;s perspective, offering readers the man rather than the icon &mdash; including insights into the creative frustrations that lead to Elvis&rsquo;s abuse of prescription medicine and his tragic death. Jerry offers never-before-told stories about life inside Elvis&rsquo;s inner circle and an emotional recounting of the great times, hard times, and unique times he and Elvis shared. These vivid memories will be priceless to Elvis&rsquo;s millions of fans, and the compelling story will fascinate an even wider audience.

Me and a Guy Named Elvis

My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley

Robert Moor

In Trees is a wondrous, curious journey through the wilds of nature and the gnarls of history, exploring how trees – from the mightiest sequoia to the tiniest bonsai – can teach us to grow wise. 
 
One day, on a whim, Robert Moor set out to climb a tree near his home, unwittingly embarking on what would become a decade-long, globe-spanning adventure in trees. From Darwin to Attenborough, Brecht to Wordsworth, cutting-edge scientists and Zen monks and Bonsai artists, In Trees explores the fundamental and meaningful role of trees in the natural world. 
 
From Ethiopia and Papua to the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Lake District, bestselling author Robert Moor uncovers the hidden art of 'tree-thinking', a powerful tool for approaching humanity's oldest questions: What is the secret to growing old well? How do we set down deeper roots in an increasingly chaotic world? And most importantly, how should we – as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the Earth – live? 
 
Weaving together history, ecology, philosophy, neuroscience, mythology, literature, and the abstract qualities of identity, belonging and memory, In Trees shares extraordinary stories of how trees have become embedded in our culture, lifestyle and imagination for centuries, becoming the key to almost everything on our planet. 
 
What began as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavour that reveals . . . To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, you need to begin thinking like one.

In Trees

An Exploration of Ancient Living Wisdom, from Wild Branches to Deep Roots

Amanda Eyre Ward

When Charlotte Perkins enters the 'Become a Jetsetter' contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist; and Regan, a harried mother who has never got over Charlotte's gift of a Weight Watchers voucher for her birthday. 
 
But when she wins that once in a lifetime trip, all doesn't exactly go to plan . . . 
 
As long-buried secrets are revealed, and lovers new and old appear, can these four lost adults find their way back to each other? 
 
And more importantly, can they do it without killing each other? 
 
A hilarious and deliciously sun-scented novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves and the pleasures and perils of family.

The Jetsetters

A 2020 REESE WITHERSPOON HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

Mark Forsyth

For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. 
 
We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas was first celebrated on 28 March in 243 AD - and only moved to 25 December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. We're unaware of the recipe that inspired the Twelve Days of Christmas. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularizing sweet wrappers. 
 
Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.

A Christmas Cornucopia

The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions

Olga Ravn

It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet – it watches and listens. 
 
It looks on as Christenze is haunted by rumour, it hears what the people whisper. It sees how, in the candlelight, she gazes with love at her friends, and hears the things they say in the shadows. It knows pine forest, misty fjord and the crackle of the burning pyre. It observes the violence in men’s eyes and the cruelty of their laws. In time, it begins to understand that once a suspicion of witchcraft has taken hold, it can prove impossible to shake… 
 
Based on an infamous seventeenth century Danish witch trial, The Wax Child is the extraordinary new novel from Olga Ravn, one of the most acclaimed and original writers at work today: a mesmerising, frightening vision of a time when witches and magic were as real to the human mind as soil and seawater.

The Wax Child

Peter Fretwell

Lisa Fretwell

'An ode to one of the world’s best-loved birds' Harper’s Bazaar 
 
'The perfect book for the penguin person in your life' Daunt Books 
 
'A joy' Horatio Clare, The Spectator 
 
‘Electrifyingly charismatic’ Dan Snow, author of On This Day in History 
 
‘The world's best-loved bird from the world's best-known publisher – what's not to like?’ Stephen Moss, author of The Bird Biography series 
 
'Simply wonderful. If you like feeling joy, you'll love this book' Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read a Tree 
 
‘Beautifully written and illustrated’ Matt Merritt, Editor of Bird Watching 
 
* 
 
A charming and beautifully illustrated book about the world’s most beloved bird, written by Peter Fretwell, a leading scientist at The British Antarctic Survey, and illustrated by Lisa Fretwell. 
 
There’s something about penguins that makes them irresistible. Maybe it’s their comical waddle, their black-and-white ‘tuxedo’ plumage, or their apparent cheerfulness in the face of extreme weather conditions. Whatever the reason, their cult following around the globe is indisputable. Penguins can tell us so much about the world we live in – and what the future of both our species might look like. 
 
In The Penguin Book of Penguins, leading British Antarctic scientist Peter Fretwell introduces us to eighteen charismatic species of penguin and the fascinating lives they lead: their evolution, behaviours and habitats, and their history with humans. From the fact that emperor penguins dive twice as deep as any other bird, to the story of a king penguin called Sir Nils Olav III who was made a Major General by the Norwegian Army, we discover through fascinating first-hand encounters (and even penguin jokes and emojis!) why penguins matter so greatly to all of us.

The Penguin Book of Penguins

An Expert’s Guide to the World’s Most Beloved Bird

Libby Page

When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly, because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. Mainly, because Joe died five months ago… 
 
The gift is simple – twelve carefully chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him. 
 
And so begins a reading-inspired journey that takes Tilly around the world; from bustling sidewalks in New York and the tree-lined avenues of Paris to the tranquil Tuscan countryside and the white sands of Bali. With the help of the bookshop owner, Alfie, Tilly starts to discover who she is now, after Joe. 
 
But can Tilly’s year of books show her how to love again?

This Book Made Me Think of You

Vaclav Smil

From the internationally bestselling author, a revealing look at the surprising numbers that uncover the hidden forces shaping our world 
 
'There is no author whose books I look forward to more' Bill Gates 
 
‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ Guardian 
 
What do marriage, milk and the black market tell us about the state of humanity? Most people would say, not much at all. But the numbers reveal startling truths about who we are, how we live and where we’re headed. For centuries we’ve told ourselves stories about how the world works – yet the data often point to a very different reality. In Numbers Tell Stories, Vaclav Smil shows how statistics challenge conventional thinking and illuminate the hidden forces shaping our lives. 
 
Take marriage. Weren’t people in the past married off as children? In fact, in eighteenth-century France, the median age was 29 for men and 27 for women – not that different to today. Or longevity. Should we look to Japan to unlock the secrets of a long, healthy life? Perhaps – but only one in five Japanese men and women retains full independence in old age. Even the world’s healthiest nation still has far to go. And waste. It sounds absurd, but discarded electronics contain more gold per ton than gold ore itself – our rubbish is richer than our mines. 
 
Climate change is another challenge we know is huge – but the real shock is the scale of the economic effort required to act in time. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions on the recommended timescale would demand 15 to 20 per cent of annual GDP in wealthy countries – roughly equivalent to the resources mobilised by the Allies to win the Second World War. Numbers on that scale are not abstract: they would transform daily life. 
 
Behind every familiar story, Smil uncovers the statistics that can reframe the past, jolt our view of the present, and change how we think about the future.

Numbers Tell Stories

How Data Reveals the Surprising Truths About Our World

Sheehan Quirke

'The Cultural Tutor is dedicated to a cosmopolitan view of culture. It writes about every continent, every religion, every tradition of art and poetry' TOMIWA OWOLADE, THE TIMES 
 
'For anyone who has enjoyed The Cultural Tutor on X, this book will be more of the same delight. Expect nuggets of insight and wisdom, wrapped in the author's trademark warmth and wit' ALAIN DE BOTTON 
 
'A remarkable book. The Cultural Tutor is a witty, wide-ranging, and engaging exploration of humanity's shared heritage, from ancient history to modern art.' DONALD ROBERTSON 
 
 
Who does the Mona Lisa actually depict? 
Why do we still look to the Greeks and Romans to inform our politics? 
Where do we find meaning in a world dominated by technology? 
 
* 
 
Culture is like a language. Art, architecture, history and philosophy are its grammar. And, like a language, anyone can learn it. 
 
In 2022, Sheehan Quirke took to Twitter (now X) as The Cultural Tutor with the aim of making culture accessible for everyone. He wrote about poetry, paintings, building design, and counter-intuitive but fascinating facts about history and geography. It wasn’t the sort of content you usually find on a newsfeed – and yet it has flourished, gaining over 1.7 million followers. 
 
Taught in forty-nine short lessons – from Babylon to Brutalism, Ronaldo to Ragnarök – Sheehan takes readers on a delightful and fascinating journey through culture. He explores provocative questions (is mythology any different to science?) and uncovers illuminating stories (did you know that the highest paid athlete in history was a Roman charioteer?). 
 
This is a witty and thought-provoking exploration of everything you need to know to begin your own adventures in the world of culture and see the everyday wonders around you.

The Cultural Tutor

Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School

Art Spiegelman

The paperback boxed set of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel in its original two-volume format re-released to include a sixteen-page booklet designed by the artist. Acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal), Maus is considered "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker). 
 
 A brutally moving work of art-widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written-Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. 
 
 Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma

Maus I & II Paperback Box Set

Ben Macintyre

The year is 1981. Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the Ayatollah’s fledgling Islamist regime. If they do so, one response from America – unknown to the public – would be to use nuclear weapons. Redwood is the story of how at the height of the Cold War, one mysterious double agent, whose intelligence reached the highest levels of British and American governments, cracked open the KGB, revealed the Kremlin’s secret plot and prevented Armageddon. 
 
‘Redwood’ was the MI6 codename for this unsung, hitherto unknown hero of the Cold War, a highly-trained six-foot-four Russian intelligence officer who chose to expose the KGB’s deepest secrets, compelled to swap sides by a shaming secret of his own. Facing exposure, with both the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and his own KGB colleagues closing in, he demanded that MI6 try to smuggle him out of Iran in a high-stakes escape plan. 
 
This is the gripping tale of one man’s courage, and its extraordinary unintended consequences that still shape our world today. It’s about a moving friendship between spies on opposite sides of the global conflict; about marriage, loyalty, betrayal and sexual dysfunction; and about how decisions made in secret can have huge, long-term ramifications. 
 
Drawing on never-before-seen material from archives in multiple countries, and interviews with the participants including officers from MI6 and MI5, the KGB and CIA, Redwood combines the shadowy world of the Spy and the Traitor with the action of SAS: Rogue Heroes. It lifts the lid on an unknown and highly significant Cold War victory, on the machinations of history's Great Game, and on how espionage really works. 
 
Without Redwood, our world would be very different – and might not exist at all.

Redwood

The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy

Naguib Mahfouz

After an assassination attempt and in waning health, Naguib Mahfouz became more cautious in his twilight years. At the same time, in nightly dreams, his imagination began to roam his beloved city, Cairo, with a rare freedom. 
 
In this collection of vivid vignettes linked together by the author’s precisely rendered nocturnal wanderings through Cairo, figures from Mahfouz’s personal life blend with his anxieties about Egypt’s political past and future. Each dream is layered with philosophical and spiritual musings, hopes and disappointments. Over the course of the book, they build to a rich and complex picture of Mahfouz’s subconscious.

I Found Myself...The Last Dreams

Katherine Blake

You&rsquo;re Loretta Darling now, welcome to your brand-new flipping life. 
 
Dreams don&rsquo;t come true for girls like Loretta but she won&rsquo;t let that stop her. With her sights set on becoming a make-up artist to the stars, Loretta wangles her way from Lancashire to the bright lights of Golden Age Hollywood. 
 
Only it turns out that Sunset Boulevard is less about dashing fellas and chilled martinis &ndash; more sticky floors and misbehaving men. The gift of the gab can only get her so far but she refuses to go quietly. 
 
Hollywood has its secrets &hellip; and so does Loretta. 
 
For a start, that&rsquo;s not her real name, and much more than lipstick lurks inside her beauty case. 
 
After all, revenge is a dish best served with a perfectly painted smile.

The Unforgettable Loretta, Darling

Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

Yeganeh Torbati

A moving, riveting and immersive story of six Iranians who, together, lived the entire arc of modern Iranian history: the promise of the 1979 revolution, its betrayal by the Islamic mafia state and a people’s undying spirit of resistance. 
 
Fuelled by Iranians’ dreams of social justice and political freedom, the 1979 revolution swept aside the shah’s ailing, repressive monarchy. But in its place the revolution’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini and his acolytes built a system that served his narrow Islamic fundamentalist faction and worsened every failing and brutality that had existed under the shah. Award-winning journalists Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati tell the entwined stories of six Iranians, providing a powerful new lens on Iran’s recent history in all its bitter twists and stubborn hope: 
 
• Mehdi Karroubi: a devotee of Khomeini, he rose to the heights of power on the wave of the revolution, before being cast out of its inner circle. 
 
• Hila Sedighi: a young activist, who gave voice through her poetry to her peers’ hopes during the reform years and ultimately immortalised their shattered dreams. 
 
• Amir Moghadam: an ambitious government bureaucrat, who witnessed corruption and graft on a scale that impelled him to take enormous risks to expose the truth. 
 
• Said Rahmani: a successful global tech entrepreneur who returned to Iran to spark a start-up boom in his native country, and encountered a ruthless security state that wanted his company for itself. 
 
• Rozhin Yousefzadeh and Kosar Eftekhari: both born in the 1990s, they escaped their gendered destinies by leaving their hometowns for Tehran, where they joined a mass movement that confronted a ferocious state apparatus: the Woman Life Freedom protests. Each paid an enormous price. 
 
Through vivid and original reporting, Stolen Revolution offers a compulsively readable new story of Iran, centring ordinary Iranians’ lives, whilst providing a visceral understanding of how life is actually lived under a modern authoritarian state. This is a harrowing story of power, corruption and greed – and those brave individuals who fought back.

Stolen Revolution

Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran

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

Bryony Gordon

“You’re so desperate to make everybody else happy that you’ve forgotten what makes you happy. You’ve not just forgotten it, you’ve abandoned it, on a bonfire full of all your other hopes and dreams. A bonfire you’re too scared to light in case the neighbours report you to the council.” 
 
--- 
 
Olivia Greenwood has been trying very hard to please people for a very long time. 
 
But today is going to change Olivia in a big way. A soul-crushing career disappointment, a fiery young woman with a chip on her shoulder and a cigarette in her hand, and one single blue hallucinogenic gummy all lead to a raucous night out and one hell of a hangover. And when Olivia wakes up the next morning, it seems she’s unable to please anyone but HERSELF. 
 
So who actually is Olivia Greenwood, when she’s not trying to be what everyone else wants her to be?

People Pleaser

Margarita Liberaki

'That summer we bought big straw hats. Maria's had cherries around the rim, Infanta's had forget-me-nots, and mine had poppies as red as fire. . .' 
 
Three Summers is a warm and tender tale of three sisters growing up in the countryside near Athens before the Second World War. Living in a ramshackle old house with their divorced mother are flirtatious, hot-headed Maria, beautiful but distant Infanta, and dreamy and rebellious Katerina, through whose eyes the story is mostly observed. Over three summers, the girls share and keep secrets, fall in and out of love, try to understand the strange ways of adults and decide what kind of adults they hope to become.

Three Summers

Neal Stephenson

In the Metaverse - cyberspace home to avatars and software daemons - there is a new drug available: Snow Crash. A cyberdrug that reduces avatars in the digital world to dust, it also infects users in real life, leaving them in a vegetative state. 
 
This is bad news for Hiro, a freelance hacker and the Metaverse's best swordfighter, and mouthy skateboard courier Y. T. Together, investigating the Infocalypse, they trace back the roots of language itself to an ancient Sumerian priesthood and find they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination.

Snow Crash

Bimini Bon Boulash

Jules Scheele

Bimini Bon Boulash is the nation's sweetheart, capturing hearts and minds as the gag-inducing, death-dropping, plant-based breakout star of RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2. Not only did she make us laugh and cry, she showed us how to develop a Positive Mental Attitude and live happily and healthily outside society's idea of 'normal'. 
 
Telling the story of how drag took her from the brink of self-destruction to the mainstage, as well as life lessons drawing on convention-breaking icons from Kate Moss to Katie Price, in this book Bimini uses all her wit, charm and kindness to show us how to lead the lives we wish we could lead, through the life-changing magic of dragging up.

Release the Beast

A Drag Queen's Guide to Life

Bill Jensen

Josh Klein

It would be so much easier to do great work if not for pointless bureaucracies, outdated technologies, and deeply irrational rules. These things are killing us. Frustrating? Hell, yes. 
 
But take heart. Today's top performers are taking matters into their own hands: bypassing sacred structures, using forbidden tools, and ignoring silly corporate edicts. In other words, they are hacking work to increase their efficiency and job satisfaction. 
 
In this groundbreaking book, consultant Bill Jensen and hacker Josh Klein reveal how to work smarter instead of harder. Once you learn how to hack work, you'll accomplish more in less time. You'll cut through red tape and circumvent stupid procedures. 
 
Hacking Work is about making the system work for you, so you can take control of your work load, increase your productivity, and help your company succeed - in spite of itself. 
 
One of Harvard Business Review's Ten Breakthrough Ideas for 2010

Hacking Work

Breaking Stupid Rules for Smart Results

Camilla Pang

A scientist’s journey from observation to discovery is anything but straightforward. It is littered with failure, unexpected diversions and joyous realisations. Science helps us to understand ourselves in a world where we often feel like strangers - but what we know about the world around us, what has already been explored and discovered, is only half of science's story. 
 
Dr Camilla Pang will look at some of the biggest mysteries facing science today and how some of the best cutting-edge scientists can illuminate our own approaches to observation, hypothesis, exploration, troubleshooting and discovery in our lives. 
 
Breakthrough explores the frontier between what we do and don’t know about the world: where knowledge meets mystery, complexity overwhelms certainty, and the vastness of our universe unspools the logic of science's established laws. 
 
The stability of science was originally a safety blanket for her survival with Autism; after becoming a scientist herself, Camilla quickly realises that it is the complete opposite. Scientific research, much like life - beset by new technology and ubiquitous information - is constantly changing. Part of its curse but also of its beauty. 
 
There's a scientist hidden inside all of us. Science's greatest gift to us is not formulae but enabling the urge to discover that makes us truly human.

Breakthrough

How to Think Like a Scientist, Learn to Fail and Embrace the Unknown

How to Think Like a Scientist, Learn How to Fail and Embrace the Unknown

Tracy Sierra

There’s something out there in the darkness. 
By morning, bones lie in the snow, picked clean. 
 
Zach knows the moods of the mountains – his mother taught him before she was gone. His father and the other men on the ski weekend think they know better though. 
 
Drinking and boasting, they laugh in the face of the icy conditions. 
 
But Zach understands what danger looks like. Can he survive the wilderness, and all the monsters within it?

Warning Signs

William Boyd

Cold War Moscow is a place smouldering with secrets. Gabriel Dax has been tasked with delivering a mysterious Blanco drawing to celebrated defector Kit Caldwell. But Caldwell is convinced the KGB suspects him of treachery, and he wants out now. 
 
 When Gabriel is ordered by his enigmatic handler Faith Green to help, he is pulled into a web of shifting loyalties and dangerous escape plans. As tensions rise and trust fractures, he is forced to confront the fine line between devotion and deception… 
 
 Cold Sunset, the third novel starring accidental spy Gabriel Dax, takes you deep into a shadow-drenched world where loyalty blurs, motives darken and every step could be fatal, in a tautly woven mystery from acclaimed bestseller William Boyd.

Cold Sunset

Cressida Connolly

On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William's experience of war will bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries. 
In the 1970s, William's descendants invite Stephen, a distant relation, to stay in their house in the English countryside - but their golden summer entanglements will end in a shocking fall from grace. 
 
Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family will culminate in a terrible reckoning.

Bad Relations

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