Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Mike Mulloy

Life was cheap in the Toxteth and Wavertree districts of Liverpool, and more murders were committed there than in any other part of the city; and so this tough inner-city area became known as Murder Mile. Rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, and becoming the most commended officer in the history of the force, Mike Mulloy had the job of investigating a series of high-profile cases over the years involving murder, arson, rape, armed robbery, drug dealing, burglary and bombing. He and his colleagues witnessed the most appalling brutality and violence where neither age nor sex provided any defence - young children, women and old people were constantly vulnerable.MURDER MILE is a fascinating and engaging addition to the literature of True Crime, written by a man who put his life on the line in the defence of the public and who saw it all at first-hand.

Murder Mile

Samer

‘Everyone should spend a couple of hours of their life reading it, to remind themselves that, even in the darkest depth of human misery, the bravest souls still exist.’ Sunday Times 
 
Since ISIS occupied Raqqa in eastern Syria, it has become one of the most isolated and fear-ridden cities on earth. 
 
The sale of televisions has been banned, wearing trousers the wrong length is a punishable offence, and using a mobile phone is considered an unforgivable crime. 
 
No journalists are allowed in and the penalty for speaking to the western media is death by beheading. 
 
Despite this, after several months of nervy and often interrupted conversations, the BBC was able to make contact with a small activist group, Al-Sharqiya 24. Finally, courageously, one of their members agreed to write a personal diary about his experiences. 
 
Having seen friends and relatives butchered, his community's life shattered and the local economy ruined by these hate-fuelled extremists, Samer is fighting back in the only way he can: by telling the world what is happening to his beloved city. 
 
This is Samer's story. 
 
'Remarkable . . . rare, intimate . . . Samer is an understated hero of our time.' Anthony Loyd, The Times 
 
'A clarion call to all of us that we should not give up. Somewhere there is a voice in the wreckage.' Michael Palin 
 
'This is brutal non-fiction, plainly and urgently told.' Robin Yassin-Kassab, Guardian 
 
'The simple act of bearing witness is one of the most powerful human responses available . . . The Raqqa Diaries is so important.' Evening Standard

The Raqqa Diaries

Escape from Islamic State

Petronella Wyatt

Petronella Wyatt writes: 'The eccentricities of my father, Lord (Woodrow) Wyatt (1918-1997), are a legend.  I, his only daughter, was required to participate in his astonishing behaviour with all the enthusiasm I could muster.  This resulted in a childhood of a kind unknown to the late 20th-century - a mixture of Edwardian extravagance, Victorian whimsicality and a vivid 18th-century haute sophistication.                 'Father was the last of the old school.  Described by his friend and former political rival Roy Jenkins as 'the ultimate original', he was a politician, writer, race-horse owner, womaniser and bon vivant - a unique product of pre-war English civilisation.  His career ensured him a varied circle of friends.  I grew up with such companions as Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Robin Day, Sir James Goldsmith, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, the Duke of Devonshire and much of Debrett's Peerage.                                                              'Each chapter of the book will contain personal and historically important anecdotes about the famous that have never before appeared in print and which will generate considerable news coverage.  What I am writing is a waspish social document - irreverent, satirical, dramatic and scandalous, disclosing how the privileged enjoy their privileges

Father Dear Father

Gavin Edwards

People love Bill Murray movies, but even more, they love crazy stories about Bill Murray out in the world. 
Bill reads poetry to construction workers. Bill joins in strangers' kickball games. Bill steals a golf cart in Stockholm. Bill follows the Roots – a hip hop band – around. Bill pays a kid $5 to ride his bicycle into a swimming pool. 
 
The most popular Bill Murray story of all time (which he will neither confirm nor deny): on a crowded street, he puts his hands over a stranger's eyes from behind and says "Guess who?" When he lifts his hands to reveal his identity as Bill Murray, he tells the gobsmacked stranger, "No one will ever believe you." 
 
For The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing, best-selling author Gavin Edwards tracked down the best authentic Bill Murray stories. People savour these anecdotes; they consume them with a bottomless hunger; they routinely turn them into viral hits. 
 
The book not only has the greatest hits of Bill's eye-opening interactions with the world, it puts them in the context of a larger philosophy (revealed to the author in an exclusive interview): Bill Murray is secretly teaching us all how to live our lives.

The Tao of Bill Murray

Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing

Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi, author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, now gives us a stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a country's political revolution.A girl's pain over family secrets; a young woman's discovery of the power of sensuality in literature; the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval - these and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir. 
 
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.Nafisi's father escaped into narratives of another kind, enchanting his children with classic tales like the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings.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. 
 
Reaching back in time to reflect on other generations in the Nafisi family, Things I've Been Silent About is also a powerful historical portrait of a family that spans the many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79.It is, finally, a deeply personal reflection on women's choices, and how Azar Nafisi found the inspiration for a different kind of life.This unforgettable portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland is a stunning book that readers will embrace, a new triumph from an author who is a modern master of the memoir.

Things I've Been Silent About

Memories

David Searcy

'A work of genius' Ben Fountain 
 
'A bittersweet book, but also a sharp and profoundly wise one' Herald 
 
'Searcy writes with an urgency that makes his essays matter. Where the shame comes in is not certain, but the wonder is that you begin a year having never heard of an author then, two weeks in, his words are lodged in your consciousness and you are telling everybody you know to read his book' Independent 
 
 
Like dispatches from another world, the twenty-one essays in David Searcy’s debut collection Shame and Wonder are unfamiliar, profound and haunting. 
 
In his late sixties, the Texan author David Searcy became drawn to non-fiction, writing ‘straight-up’, on note pad and manual typewriter, a series of disparate thoughts and interests. These unframed apprehensions, as he called them – of forgotten baseball fields, childhood dreams of space travel, the bedtime stories he’d invent for his young children – evolved into a sequence of extraordinary essays probing the pivots and pathways of his life, and puzzling out what they might mean. 
 
Expansive in scope, but deeply personal in their perspective, the pieces in Shame and Wonder forge beautiful connections that make the everyday seem almost extraterrestrial, creating intricate and glittering constellations of words and ideas. Radiant and strange and suffused with longing, this collection is a work of true grace, wisdom and joy.

Shame and Wonder

Paul Osborne

The full, true story of the dog featured on the cover of Clare Balding's HEROIC ANIMALS 
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The incredible true story of Sherlock, the brave dog with a nose for saving lives. 
 
Firefighter Paul Osborne works with the Fire Investigation Dog unit, where he handles Sherlock - an excitable, bright-eyed cocker spaniel. 
 
What makes Sherlock different? He's the most talented investigative dog the Fire Brigade has ever produced, capable of identifying extraordinarily subtle traces and scents even after thousand-degree blazes - even when he has to wear special protective boots due to the dangerous environments. 
 
Today, Paul and Sherlock fearlessly plunge into the most dramatic fire scenes in London, helping to keep the capital safe around the clock. With remarkable insight into the life of London's most heroic working dog, this inspiring account of the London Fire Brigade's four-legged heroes will delight and amaze. 
 
Foreword by Dany Cotton, Commissioner for The London Fire Brigade 
____________________ 
Winners of the Mirror and RSPCA Animal Hero Awards 2017 
 
Written in collaboration with and with full support from the London Fire Brigade

Sherlock: The Fire Brigade Dog

Rob Rinder

Too many lawyers spout jargon... I’m here to cut the bulls**t. Robert Rinder 
 
Have you had a holiday from hell? Been left with a hole in your floor by a dodgy builder? Fed up with fighting over who gets the dog after your divorce? 
 
Don't worry, criminal barrister Rob Rinder, star of the ITV hit show Judge Rinder and columnist for the Sun, is here to help you take action. From common legal woes to problems you may have, this is a collection of real-life stories of things gone wrong, for which he provides sound legal advice. 
 
With sections on jargon-busting, consumer rights and common mistakes, Rinder’s Rules provides a thorough guide to everyday legal issues that you can carry with you anywhere.This book is both incredibly informative and unbearably funny.

Rinder's Rules

Make the Law Work For You!

Gerry Anderson

The critically acclaimed memoir from the well-loved broadcaster Gerry Anderson 
 
Gerry Anderson broadcast every day out of Londonderry, which once upon a time was called Doire Colmcille, evolving, under the influence of the English, into LondonDerry in the 17th century. On a dark night now, asked about your destination by a shadowy figure, 'Derry' might be the right answer or the wrong answer. 'Stroke City', on the other hand, addresses the issue with wry neutrality. Gerry Anderson was anything but neutral about his life, his country and his work. SURVIVING IN STROKE CITY is a sharp, evocative, often surreal meditation on a world that Anderson made uniquely his own.

Surviving In Stroke City

Stanley N Alpert

On the night before his thirty-eighth birthday, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped by a car-full of gun-toting thugs. They were looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance, the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded, to a Brooklyn apartment, with the idea of going to a bank the next day and withdrawing most of his money. His captors alternately held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of gangsta philosophy and sought his legal advice before eventually releasing him in a manner which has to be one of the most bizarre occurrences in the history of crime. 
 
Told from Alpert's memory and notes; interviews with NYPD detectives, FBI agents and witnesses; videotaped confessions; and court records, Kidnapped reads like a thriller - but every word is true.

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