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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Michael Jackson

The only book Michael Jackson ever wrote about his life 
 
It chronicles his humble beginnings in the Midwest, his early days with the Jackson 5, and his unprecedented solo success. Giving unrivalled insight into the King of Pop's life, it details his songwriting process for hits like Beat It, Rock With You, Billie Jean, and We Are the World; describes how he developed his signature dance style, including the Moon Walk; and opens the door to his very private personal relationships with his family, including sister Janet, and stars like Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Marlon Brando, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, and Brooke Shields. 
 
At the time of its original publication in 1988, MOONWALK broke the fiercely guarded barrier of silence that surrounded Michael Jackson. Candidly and courageously, Jackson talks openly about his wholly exceptional career and the crushing isolation of his fame, as well as the unfair rumours that have surrounded it. 
 
MOONWALK is illustrated with rare photographs from Jackson family albums and Michael's personal photographic archives, as well as a drawing done by Michael exclusively for the book. It reveals and celebrates, as no other book can, the life of this exceptional and beloved musician.

Moonwalk

Michael Buerk

'Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the Twentieth Century.' 
 
Those words opened Michael Buerk's first report on the Ethiopian famine for the 6 o'clock news on October 24th 1984. His reports sent shock waves round the world. The Live Aid concert, a direct consequence of Bob Geldof watching that broadcast, was watched by half the planet. 
 
Michael Buerk has reported on some of the biggest stories in our lifetime: the Flixborough chemical plant fire, the Birmingham pub bombing, Lockerbie. He was in Buenos Aires at the start of the Falklands War; he reported the death throes of apartheid in South Africa. 
 
He was the face of the BBC flagship evening news for many years and has fronted everything from the popular BBC1 series 999 to the erudite Radio 4 programme The Moral Maze. He has won every major award and is universally admired and respected for his intelligent and honest journalism. 
Here, he also reveals the private Michael Buerk, his bigamist father, his long and happy marriage to Christine and his delight at fatherhood.

The Road Taken

Ruth Reichl

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine undetected when she takes on the much coveted and highly prestigious job of New York Times restaurant critic. 
Reichl knows that to be a good critic she has to be anonymous - but her picture is posted in every four-star, low-star kitchen in town and so she embarks on an extraordinary - and hilarious - undercover game of disguise - keeping even her husband and son in the dark. There is her stint as Molly, a frumpy blonde in an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque resulting in a double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic. Then there is the eccentric, mysterious red head on whom her husband - both disconcertingly and reassuringly - develops a terrible crush. She becomes Brenda the earth mother, Chloe the seductress and even Miriam her own (deceased) mother. 
What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various guises, she finds herself changed not just physically, but also in character revealing how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites.

Garlic And Sapphires

Richard Littlejohn

Richard Littlejohn's cast of characters &shy; including Two Jags, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook and the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban &shy; are now part of the fabric of the nation. He ridicules the country Britain has become over the past ten years - the barmy bureaucracy, the surveillance state, the petty interference in our lives, the suffocating regulations, policemen and judges who think they're part of the social services and the insanities of the 'elf 'n' safety industry, which has created such idiocies as forcing revellers celebrating Guy Fawkes Night to watch a bonfire on a big screen. 
 
'Littlejohn has been ... a vivid exponent of a great British columnar style that stretches back five centuries or more. He's a distant, bastard cousin of Thomas Nash, Daniel Defoe and Alexander Pope. Cassandra and Bernard Levin might justly buy him a pint in the Cheshire Cheese. Like or loathe him, he's the real, talented deal.' Observer

Littlejohn's Britain

Ben Mezrich

The true story of the Ivy League hedge fund cowboys who gambled with the dangerously high stakes of the Asian stock market. 
 
John Malcolm, high school football hero and Princeton graduate made his millions back in the early '90s, a time when dozens of elite young American graduates made their fortunes in hedge funds in the Far East, beating the Japanese at their own game, riding the crashing waves of the Asian stock markets, gambling at impossibly high stakes and winning. Failure meant not only bankruptcy and disgrace à la Nick Leeson, but potentially even death - at the hands of the Japanese Yakuza: one of the world's most notoriously violent organised crime syndicates. 
 
Ugly Americans tells Malcolm's story, and that of others like him, in a high octane book, filled with glamour, money and the dangers these incur, this true story is a cross between Mezrich's own best-selling Bringing Down the House and Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

Ugly Americans

Chris Marnewick

*THE GRIPPING NEW DRAMA AS SEEN ON NETFLIX* 
 
South Africa, 1987. Apartheid. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard working on death row commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court’s sentence - seems a foregone conclusion. 
 
Hotshot lawyer John Weber (played by Steve Coogan) reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case. A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation’s most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions: befriending the inmates over the years while having to assist with their eventual execution. 
 
As the court hearings progress, the case offers John the opportunity to put the entire system of legally sanctioned murder on trial. How can one man take such a dual role of friend and executioner, becoming both shepherd and butcher? Inspired by true events, this is the story that puts the death penalty on trial and changes history.

Shepherds and Butchers

Dana Vachon

Mergers &amp; Acquisitions is the story of Tommy Quinn, a recent Georgetown graduate who has just landed the job of his dreams as an investment banker at J. S. Spenser, and the perfect girl, Frances Sloan, the daughter of one of New York's oldest moneyed families. As he travels from the most exclusive ballrooms of the Racquet and Tennis Club to the stuffiest boardrooms of J. S. Spenser, from the golf links of Piping Rock to the bedrooms of Park Avenue, and from the debaucheries on the yacht of a Mexican billionaire to the Ritalin-strewn prep-school dorm of his younger brother, he finds that the job and the girl are not what they once seemed. 
 
Sharply written, fast-paced and bitingly witty, Mergers &amp; Acquisitions is a compulsively readable story of Manhattan's young, ambitious and wealthy. Set against the backdrop of money, lust, power, corruption, cynicism, energy and excitement that is Wall Street, it is suffused with an authenticity that only an author who lives in that world can provide. A former investment banker at JPMorgan, Vachon offers an insider's point of view on the financial scene, and he knows the moneyed turf of Manhattan inside out.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Chris Terrill

Chris Terrill is a man in search of his limit. He's 55 years old. He is not a soldier. He is being trained by the Royal Marines and he is going to Afghanistan. The only difference is that instead of a gun, Chris will be holding a camera and filming the whole ordeal for a major TV series. 
 
The Royal Marines Commando training base in Lympstone Devon, has a famous motto: '99.9% need not apply'. Of those who start training, after a very tough selection process, nearly 50% fail to make it through the most gruelling physical tests of any armed forces in the world in an eight month training regime. The elite who do eventually pass out are generally eighteen years old and at the peak of physical condition. But Chris Terrill is the exception: this book will tell of his heroic struggle to become the oldest man to win the coveted Royal Marines Commando Green Beret and enter the record books. 
 
And after six months of hell, what next? Chris will follow the raw recruits on a tour to Southern Afghanistan. He will tell the story in book and film of the fears and hopes of the youngsters as they are plunged into one of the planet's most dangerous wars in the outlaw mountain terrain of Helmand Province. He will tell of ferocious battles against the Taliban, of firefights, of jaw-dropping heroism, British sang froid and humour and tragedy as causalities are suffered -- all from the unique perspective of a civilian who has achieved the ultimate accolade: to be accepted as an honorary Royal Marines Commando. Commando is a brilliant account of modern war on the front line.

Commando

Simon Elmes

And Now on Radio 4 offers an enthusiast's guide to the shows that have made Radio 4 what it is, and also explores some of the wonderful corners of the network's history that are long forgotten by all but a few. Who, for instance, now recalls Ronnie Barker's starring role on Radio 4 in a sophisticated cabaret-cum-sketch-show called Lines from My Grandfather's Forehead? What about Spike Milligan's intimate, soul-bearing account of his upbringing in colonial India, Plain Tales from the Raj? And who now remembers that Start the Week was once hosted by Russell Harty, a bit of programming compared by one insider to letting Graham Norton run Newsnight. 
 
In order to reflect the way devotees listen to Radio 4, the book is organised not on simple chronological lines but in the form of a typical day. Chapter by chapter, the day evolves, from Farming Today, through the daily feast that is Today, through the morning menu of conversation, Woman's Hour, documentary and comedy. Lunchtime brings The World at One. The early evening, of course, yields The Archers. And finally there's Book at Bedtime and Sailing By. 
 
An addictive mix of history, biography, anecdote and occasional useless fact, this is the perfect book for Radio 4 aficionados.

And Now on Radio 4

A Celebration of the World's Best Radio Station

Robert Harris

'Harris is a master of pace and entertainment' Observer 
 
'Could scarcely be more of the moment' The Times 
 
Nothing spreads like fear . . . 
 
In the secretive inner circle of the ultra-rich, Alex Hoffmann is a legend. 
 
He has developed an algorithm for playing the financial markets that generates billions of pounds - and feeds on panic. 
 
When one day his system is threatened by a terrifying intruder who breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside home, his life becomes a waking nightmare of violence and paranoia. 
 
But who is trying to destroy him? And is it already too late? 
 
'There are moments when this book feels so up to date it could have been written next week . . . spookily exciting' Express

The Fear Index

It’s now ninety years since the BBC made its first broadcast and the British love affair with radio began. 
 
This book is a journey through that fascinating history and a celebration of the many wonderful voices that were part of it: Marion Cran, who pioneered the first gardening programme in the 1920s; The Goons and Kenneth Horne, comedy greats of the 1950s; John Peel, Alan Freeman, Kenny Everett and other heroes of the pirate stations; all the way up to Eddie Mair, Fi Glover and Danny Baker, the much-loved voices of today. 
 
A delightful blend of insight, history and nostalgia, Hello Again will appeal to any radio aficionado.

Hello Again

Nine decades of radio voices

Leslie Thomas

From Barnardo boy to original virgin soldier; from apprentice journalist in London's Fleet Street to famous novelist... 
 
At times funny, at times sad, but always honest and utterly compulsive, Leslie Thomas's story is straight out of fiction. As an orphan, he picked his way through the rubble of post-war Britain and was sent on national service to the Far East. Later he became a Fleet Street reporter, with hilarious experiences to relate, and then became the bestselling author of The Virgin Soldiers - the novel that, although scandalous in its day, is now recognised as a classic of its kind. He is also the creator of Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective, which has been adapted into a popular television series. In 2005, Leslie Thomas was awarded an OBE for services to literature. 
 
With a new introduction for this edition, this is an amazing story, and Leslie Thomas's magic touch brings it crackling to life with warmth, wit and humour.

In My Wildest Dreams

Brian Cruver

Brian Cruver was a first-hand witness to the disturbing, surreal and hilarious moments of American business giant Enron's long dance with death. When he first entered Enron's office complex, 'the Death Star', he was the epitome of the classic Enron employee: young, brash, obscenely overpaid and sporting a brand-new MBA. From his first day, however, when he was told that some colleagues hadn't really wanted to see him hired, he found himself in the middle of a venal greed machine whose story unfolded with Kafka-esque absurdity and frustration. The Anatomy of Greed examines the accounting tricks, the insider stock trading - and in a special section, how the grossly lucrative fraudulent partnerships were structured and funded - as well as everyday life as an Enronian. Working at Enron meant cocky wheeling and dealing, parties on the trade floor, casual conversations at the shredder and the insidious group think that made Enron employees unquestioningly accept the propaganda spoon-fed to them by Enron bosses Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. A portrait of the author as a young Enronian, The Anatomy of Greed reveals the sting of reality, humility and pain felt by a man whose idols turned out to be fools and scoundrels and who learned that there is more to life than stock options.

Enron

The Anatomy of Greed The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider

John Grisham

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***NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES*** 
 
A gripping true-crime story of a shocking miscarriage of justice, from international bestselling thriller author John Grisham. 
 
In the baseball draft of 1971, Ron Williamson was the first player chosen from Oklahoma. Signing with Oakland, he said goodbye to his small home town and left for California to pursue his dreams of glory. 
 
Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits - drinking, drugs and women. He began to show signs of mental illness. Unable to keep a job, he moved in with his mother and slept 20 hours a day on her sofa. 
 
In 1982, a 21 year-old cocktail waitress, Debra Sue Carter, was raped and murdered, and for five years the crime went unsolved. Finally, desperate for someone to blame, police came to suspect Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with murder. 
 
With no physical evidence, the prosecution's case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. 
 
Ron Williamson was sent to Death Row. 
 
But as Grisham methodically lays out, there was no case against him. Ron Williamson was wrongly condemned to die. 
 
If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. 
__________________ 
In 2018, THE INNOCENT MAN was adapted by Netflix into a gripping six-part true crime series. 
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‘A master at the art of deft characterisation and the skilful delivery of hair-raising crescendos' – Irish Independent 
 
'John Grisham is the master of legal fiction' – Jodi Picoult 
 
'The best thriller writer alive' – Ken Follett 
 
‘John Grisham has perfected the art of cooking up convincing, fast-paced thrillers’ – Telegraph 
 
‘Grisham is a superb, instinctive storyteller’ – The Times 
 
‘Grisham's storytelling genius reminds us that when it comes to legal drama, the master is in a league of his own.’ – Daily Record 
 
‘Masterful – when Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they're not just alive, they're pulsating’ – Mirror 
 
‘A giant of the thriller genre’ – TimeOut

The Innocent Man

A gripping crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of mystery and suspense

Bruce Oldfield

Fanny Blake

Born a mixed-race, illegitimate child to an irresponsible, 'care-free' mother and an anonymous Jamaican boxer, Bruce Oldfield's entry into the world was anything but conventional. As his mother was moved from hospital to mental home to supervision by her mother, likewise Bruce moved through several boy's homes before being fostered for twelve years with a woman who became known as 'Mum' and with three other mixed-race children who became his 'brothers' and 'sisters'. 
 
Bruce's 'family' rarely strayed far from living just above the bread line. To make up the finances Bruce's foster mum worked as a seamstress. It was her talent to make fabulous clothes from scraps of material that captured Bruce's imagination. 
 
What began as a hobby and desire to ease the family's financial worries became Bruce's life's work as he rose through the ranks of top designers in London, New York and Paris to become one of the best known and best loved figures in the fashion world. 
 
He created the most beautiful clothes for an amazing range of people - from the Princess of Wales to Dame Edna Everage. 
 
'After thirty years in the business it seems an opportune moment to put down an account of my life, as much to evaluate where I've been as to decide where I'm going.'

Rootless

An Autobiography

Tom Harper

From the pen of prizewinning author Tom Harper, this is a high-octane adventure thriller in the bestselling tradition of The Da Vinci Code. With a lingering sense of tension and unease coupled with all-out action and a plethora of twists and turns, it is perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Clive Cussler and Scott Mariani. 
 
'In the tradition of The Da Vinci Code, a page-turner of a novel. Like Dan Brown, Tom Harper knows how to ratchet up the tension.' -- Choice 
'Be warned, you could become so hooked by this big adventure thriller that the tide will be lapping round your deckchair before you notice' - Peterborough Evening Telegraph 
'Brilliant storytelling linking the past to the present! The level of detail and historical and geographical information is amazing.... highly recommended' -- ***** Reader review 
'A story that keeps you guessing and reading. It is hard to put down until the very last page.' -- ***** Reader review 
'A gripping yarn' -- ***** Reader review 
'So far everyone I know who has read this has done so in one sitting, some doing all-nighters to manage it.' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************************** 
EIGHT CENTURIES OF DECEIT HIDE A DEADLY SECRET 
 
Deep in the heart of London, the Monsalvat Bank is small, secretive and fabulously wealthy. When Ellie Stanton, an impoverished graduate student, is unexpectedly invited to join the firm, the offer looks too good to turn down. 
 
 But the bank is more than it seems. Soon Ellie realises that her life belongs to her employers - and they're watching her every move. For buried in their medieval vaults lies a closely-guarded treasure of immeasurable power - one inextricably bound up with Ellie's own history. 
 
 Now Ellie is in a race against time, hunted by the bank and pursued by her past. Her only hope of escape is to unearth the secret hidden in the vault. But getting in is only the beginning...

The Lazarus Vault

a pacy, heart-thumping, race-against time thriller guaranteed to have you hooked…

Phil Redmond

A masterclass in media studies from the creator of Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks. Described in Parliament as 'excellent' by Ed Vaizey, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
 
 
GRANGE HILL 
 
Swimming pool disasters. Drugs, and just say ‘no’. Flying sausages. School like you’d never seen it before. 
 
BROOKSIDE 
 
Lesbian kisses. Bodies under patios. Exploding shops. Suburban life like you’d never seen it before. 
 
HOLLYOAKS 
 
Bad boys on bikes. Loveable geeks. Leggy blondes. Students like you’d never seen them before. 
 
PHIL REDMOND 
 
Three classic TV programmes. One TV genius. This is the behind-the-scenes story of how a working-class lad from the Liverpool suburbs went from living on a housing estate to buying one, and from comprehensive school dinners to lunch with the Queen. Along the way he learned a lot of lessons, broke all the rules, and changed television for ever.

Mid-Term Report

A gripping and shocking insight into Russia's most influential oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, from New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires. 
 
To understand the state of Russia today, one must understand the oligarchs who have shaped it. 
 
Once Upon a Time in Russia is the true and untold story of the larger-than-life oligarchs who reaped the riches of privatisation after the fall of the Soviet regime: "Godfather of the Kremlin" Boris Berezovsky, a mathematician whose first entrepreneurial venture was running an automobile reselling business, and Roman Abramovich, his dashing young protégé who built a multi-billion-dollar empire of oil and aluminium. Locked in a complex, uniquely Russian partnership, the two battled their way through the "Wild East" of Russia, with Berezovsky acting as the younger man's krysha - his roof, his protector. 
 
Written with the heart-stopping pace of a thriller, this true story of amassing obscene wealth and power depicts a world seldom seen up close. Under Berezovsky's krysha, Abramovich built one of Russia's largest oil companies from the ground up in exchange for cash deliveries - including 491 million dollars in just one year. But their relationship frayed when Berezovsky attacked President Vladimir Putin in the media. As Berezovsky fled to the UK, Abramovich continued to prosper. 
 
Dead bodies trailed Berezovsky's footsteps, and threats followed him to London, where an associate of his died painfully and famously of Polonium poisoning. Then, Berezovsky himself was later dead, officially declared a suicide. 
 
Exclusively sourced, capturing a momentous period in recent world history, Once Upon a Time in Russia is at once personal and political, offering an unprecedented look into the wealth, corruption, and power behind what Graydon Carter dubbed 'the story of our age'.

Once Upon a Time in Russia

The Rise of the Oligarchs and the Greatest Wealth in History

Charles Handy

Charles Handy is perhaps best known outside the business world as a wise and warm presenter of Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'. Long recognised as one of the world's leading business thinkers (over a million copies of his books have been sold around the world), in Myself and Other More Important Matters he leaves the management territory he has so effectively and influentially mapped in the past to explore the wider issues and dilemmas - both moral and creative - raised by the turning points of his long and successful life.Here he investigates the big issues of how life can best be lived as they have emerged from the unfolding of his life and his unique and influential understanding of what really matters. 
 
From supplying oil by boat to an area larger than England as a bullish young Shell executive in Borneo to realising that there was a big difference between describing the development of a 'portfolio' life (made up of a variety of activities for a range of purposes and pay) in theory and actually himself leaving behind full-time employment, from helping to start up the London and Open business schools to listening and talking to people all over the world about how they want to manage their lives, Handy's telling of his experiences proves both revealing and significant.

Myself and Other More Important Matters

Stephen Fry

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The original bestselling autobiography by comedian, novelist and national treasure Stephen Fry. 
 
Few people serve time in prison before studying at Cambridge. You might be surprised to know that Stephen Fry is one of them. 
 
Moab is My Washpot, the remarkable story of Stephen Fry's tumultuous early life, is by turns funny, shocking, tender, delicious, sad, lyrical, bruisingly frank and addictively readable. 
 
It's the story of a boy sent to a boarding school 200 miles from home at the age of seven, who survives beatings, misery, love, ecstasy, carnal violation, expulsion, imprisonment, criminal conviction, probation and catastrophe to emerge, at eighteen, ready to try and face the world in which he had always felt a stranger. 
 
Fry writes with the wit and warmth which have become his hallmark, but with shocking candour too. For anyone seeking to understand one of Britain's greatest cultural treasures, this book is utterly essential reading.

Moab Is My Washpot

Dan Heath

Chip Heath

'This book is a gift to anyone who needs to get a message across and make it stick.' New Statesman 
 
'Smart, lively . . . such fun to read.' Guardian 
_______________________________________________________ 
 
Mark Twain once observed, 'A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.' His observation rings true: urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas - entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists - struggle to make them 'stick'. 
 
In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain how to make ideas stickier, such as applying the Velcro Theory of Memory, using the human scale principle and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, they reveal that sticky messages of all kinds - from the infamous 'kidney theft ring' hoax, to a coach's lessons on sportsmanship, to a vision for a new product at Sony - draw their power from the same six traits. 
 
Made to Stick reveals the vital principles behind winning ideas - and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick. It will transform the way you communicate. 
_____________________________________________________ 
'Anyone interested in influencing others . . . can learn from this book.' Washington Post 
'This is great for anyone planning a speech or trying to get their message across at work.' Psychologies

Made to Stick

Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck

Marnie Simpson

The Sunday Times bestseller from one of the UK's best-loved television stars. 
 
'I'm a girl with a crazy head, a big heart and even bigger dreams. If I've made mistakes, I've learned from them. But whatever's happened to me , I can never say that life's been boring.' 
 
From a young North-East girl to star of the small screen, Geordie Shore personality Marnie Simpson is here to lift the lid and reveal all. 
 
Marnie Simpson is one of the UK's best-loved TV personalities, first bursting on to our screens in the TV series Geordie Shore. Marnie lifts the lid on her life with characteristic punch – uncover the real Marnie through the ups and downs of growing up in Newcastle to the hilarious and dramatic antics of Geordie Shore and Celebrity Big Brother. 
 
Marnie reveals all – and everything in between!

Stripped Bare

Robin Campbell

Ali Campbell

Born and raised in a council house on Birmingham's notorious Balsall Heath under the watchful eye of their staunchly socialist, folk singer father, Robin and Ali Campbell were to become members of the most successful reggae band in the world, a career that has spanned four decades. 
 
But this is not the autobiography of a pop band legend, but rather the story of two working class brothers crashing and burning and fighting back against the odds. It is the story of growing up in the 1960s to the sounds of Motown and ska, folk music and skiffle and radical politics and - most importantly - the new and infectious sound of reggae that was to capture the ears of these two teenage kids from the Midlands. 
 
Instilled by their father from an early age to always do things their own way, the brothers - in between dead end jobs and the dole office - put together a band that would show Balsall Heath what reggae was all about . Mismanagement, drink, drugs, divorce, paranoia and jail terms would dog the band and threaten to destroy it all - including the brother's relationship and yet they come to amass record sales in excess of 50 million, with nearly 50 hit singles to their credit - from 'Red Red Wine' and 'Don't Break My Heart' to 'Homely Girl' and 'I Got You Babe'.

Blood And Fire

Barbara Freese

An enthralling journey, across time and across continents, using the fascination with coal and the crucial need for it as a way of approaching some of the most fundamental questions of human existence. 
 
'A passionate plea for a more considered way of treating the earth, its resources and its inhabitants' DAILY TELEGRAPH 
____________________________________________________________ 
 
Coal has transformed societies and shaped the fate of nations. It launched empires and triggered wars. Above all, it fuelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain, propelling the rise of a small rural kingdom into the greatest commercial empire in the world. 
 
Taking us on a rich historical journey that begins on the banks of the river Tyne, Barbara Freese explores the profound role coal has played in human history and continues to play in todays world. The first half of the book is set in Britain and tells how coal transformed Britain and ushered in the industrial age. The rest of the book looks at America and China, at the birth of the unions and the closing of the mines, and at the energy industry today. With oil prices on the rise and no end in sight to our insatiable appetite for energy, the world is turning again to coal. 
____________________________________________________________ 
'Elegant and engaging . . . No subject is more important for understanding the recent past, and preparing for the future.' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'The incredible story of Britain's black goal.' DAILY MAIL 
 
'Eloquent . . . unsparing . . . The relation between carbon and climate change has seldom been so clearly and readably explained.' SCOTSMAN 
 
'As much about the growing scientific evidence of the damage coal causes to the environment as it is about the social history of the Industrial Revolution.' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'An absorbing book that never loses its grip.' NEW SCIENTIST 
 
'Fascinating . . . It lingers hauntingly in the mind.' NEW STATESMAN 
 
'As this human history of coal makes clear, there are no easy answers. . . A welcome contribution to the search for a sustainable energy economy.' NATURAL HISTORY 
 
'Coal, while it fairly acknowledges what the substance has done for people, devotes its more swashbuckling passages to describing what it has done to them' NEW YORK TIMES BOOKS REVIEW

Coal

A Human History

Bryan Burrough

John Helyar

THE BESTSELLER THAT DEFINED AN AGE, NOW WITH A NEW FOREWORD 
 
From two award-winning business journalists comes the rollicking tale of one of the largest corporate takeovers in American history 
 
'The most bizarre financial mock-epic of our age. Read it open-mouthed; wonder and shudder' Independent 
 
‘One of the best business books of all time’ Economist 
 
The fight to control food and tobacco giant RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age, and its repercussions are still being felt. The ultimate story of greed and glory, Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. 
 
Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, here is the unforgettable story of the takeover in all its brutality. 
 
‘A soap opera of greed and clashing egos’ New York Times

Barbarians At The Gate

Carole White

There are model agents and there is Carole White … 
 
Every decade in Carole White’s life has been extraordinary, from her childhood in Colonial Ghana, her rebellious teenage years and own modelling career, to spending 30 years at the helm of her iconic London agency Premier. 
 
Christy, Naomi, Linda, Claudia, Cindy … White has shaped the careers of the most superlative names ever to grace a catwalk and was at the centre of the 90s supermodel storm in all its glory, drama and excess. 
 
There have been landmark court cases, size zero debates, tantrums and triumphs. And who could forget her starring role as the much-loved ‘witch’ in award-winning reality show The Model Agency? 
 
Carole’s got opinions and she’s not afraid to share them. Have I Said Too Much? is the frank and revealing story of the grande dame of modelling, as well as an exclusive insight in to this thrilling, glamorous and chaotic industry.

Have I Said Too Much?

My Life In and Out of The Model Agency

Robert Buderi

Gregory Huang

In an age of global innovation, could an unlikely partnership between the world's most famous capitalist and the world's largest communist nation be helping to determine the future of computer science? Guanxi is a compelling behind-the-scenes tale of how Bill Gates' software dreams are coming true in China. 
 
Guanxi (gwan-shee), the Chinese term for the mutually beneficial relationships that are essential to success, tells the story of the juggernaut research lab that underpins Microsoft's developing relationship with China. The gripping narrative moves between Beijing and the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA, and follows the lab's emergence as a centre of excellence for Chinese computer science. Microsoft has invested well over 100 million dollars and hired more than 400 of China's best and brightest - what was once an outpost is now at the very heart of software research, creating dramatic payoffs for both Microsoft and China. 
 
As pundits rail against the 'China threat' to Western competitiveness and offer passionate (yet often hackneyed) arguments against outsourcing, Guanxi explores the true ramifications of China's technological progress - and how it can be turned to everyone's advantage. Sprinkled with telling observations, compelling characters and lively anecdotes about the brilliant successes and sometimes painful stumbles of the world's most powerful software company, Guanxi is essential reading for business leaders, entrepreneurs and technology workers around the globe.

Guanxi

Alastair Campbell

How people succeed – and how you can, too. 
***Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller*** 
 
Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair’s chief spokesman and strategist he helped guide the Labour Party to victory in three successive general elections, and he’s fascinated by what it takes to win. 
 
How do sports stars excel, entrepreneurs thrive, or individuals achieve their ambition? Is their ability to win innate? Or is the winning mindset something we can all develop? Drawing on the wisdom of an astonishing array of talented people – from elite athletes to top managers, from rulers of countries to rulers of global business empires – Alastair Campbell uses his forensic skills, as well as his own experience of politics and sport, to get to the heart of success. He examines how winners tick. He considers how they build great teams. He analyses how they deal with unexpected setbacks and new challenges. He judges what the very different worlds of politics, business and sport can learn from one another. And he sets out a blueprint for winning that we can all follow.

Winners

And How They Succeed

Jeffrey Toobin

Now a major BBC TV series. 
 
The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The People V. O.J. Simpson is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. 
 
First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin explores the secret dealings and manoeuvring on both sides of the case, and how a combination of the prosecution's over-confidence, the defence's shrewdness, and the Los Angeles Police Department’s incendiary history with the city’s African-American community, gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt. 
 
Rich in character, as propulsive as a legal thriller, this enduring narrative continues to shock and fascinate with its candid depiction of the human drama that upended the world. The People V. O.J. Simpson tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of the trial of the century.

The People V. O.J. Simpson

Richard Wiseman

In a recent series of ground-breaking psychological experiments, volunteers were shown a 30-second film of some people playing basketball and told to count the number of passes made with the ball.  After just a few seconds, a man dressed as a gorilla slowly walked into frame, beat his chest at the camera, and sauntered off.  Unbelievably, almost none of the people watching the film noticed the gorilla. Exactly the same psychological mechanisms that cause people to miss the gorilla also make them miss unexpected but vitally important opportunities in their professional and personal lives.  This book outlines the scientific evidence and thinking behind this remarkable new phenomenon, and shows you how you can spot gorillas in your life - and what to do when you see one.

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