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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Margaret Humphreys

Also published as Empty Cradles. 
 
In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman's claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Up to 150,000 children, some as young as three years old, had been deported from children's homes in Britain and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire, right up until as recently as 1970. 
 
Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents often believed that their children had been adopted in Britain. In fact, for many children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse far away from everything they knew. Margaret reveals how she unravelled this shocking secret and how it became her mission to reunite these innocent and unwilling exiles with their families in Britain before it was too late.

Oranges and Sunshine

Empty Cradles

Eric Haney

The story of America's elite military unit told by one of its founding members 
 
They are the U.S. Army's most élite top secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won't hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions; and no book has ever taken readers inside-until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force). 
 
INSIDE DELTA FORCE 
 
In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary unit from the beginning. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process, designed to break the strongest of men, that singles out the perfect soldier, and then the years of training that turns him into the ultimate modern warrior that is the Delta Force Operator. 
 
From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to close VIP protection in Beirut, from rescuing missionaries in Sudan to the abortive attempt to extract American hostages from Tehran, and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force puts the reader right at the heart of the action and gives a breathtaking glimpse of a life that is as driven, inspiring and terrifying as they come. 
 
Eric L. Haney, Command Sergeant Major, USA (Ret.), served for more than twenty years in the United States Army's most demanding combat units: as a combat infantryman, a Ranger, and ultimately as a founding member of Delta Force. In his retirement, Haney has protected princes, presidents and CEOs alike.

Inside Delta Force

Timothy Ferriss

Timothy Ferris, bestselling author of Coming of Age in the Milky Way, brilliantly synthesizes inner and outer space with a penetrating examination into the nature of the universe and the human brain that perceives it. Through the lenses of two innovative fields of scientific research - neuroscience and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI - Ferris brings into focus a startling new vision of the relationship between mind and universe. 
 
Whether he is contemplating the possibility of otherwordly life-forms or pondering the consequences of virtual reality computer technology, Timothy Ferris captures our sense of wonder with a lucid and imaginative look at one of modern science's greatest challenges; how we can understand, interpret and, ultimately, reconcile the equally mysterious realms of mind and universe. From ancient Stone Age burial mounds to today's state-of-the-art laboratories, solving this eternal riddle has been the goal of philosophers and mystics, occultists and poets, alchemists and scientists. In The Mind's Sky, Ferris examines the 'dance' between mind and cosmos, showing how the universe is partly a construct of the mind itself and asking whether intelligence - far from being a product of our world alone - may have universal currency. 
 
Ferris considers the intriguing complexity of the human brain and what constitutes real intelligence. Laughter, near-death experiences, athletic performance ('Joe Montana's Premotor Cortex'), the neurobiology of mystical experience, and a subtle mental program called 'the interpreter' are all part of his freewheeling quest into the nature of consciousness. 
 
Ferris advances the provocative thesis that SETI, our current search for life on other planets, could reward the human race with the fruit of cosmic knowledge - or prove as cataclysmic as Eve's desire for the apple. And he gives us an inside look at IT - information theory - a new philosophy of knowledge and communication. 
 
Filled with the combination of scientific fact, human anecdote, and provocative insight that has become his trademark, Timothy Ferris's The Mind's Sky offers a rare, life-enhancing perception of our world and our cosmos and underscores the unique choices we face as a species capable of deciding our own fate on the planet - and among the stars.

The Mind's Sky

Human Intelligence in a Cosmic Context

Elvi Rhodes

Fans of Rosamunde Pilcher, Maeve Binchy and Erica James will love this compelling story examining how people react differently to change from multi-million copy seller Elvi Rhodes. Guaranteed to have you hooked from page one... 
 
READERS ARE LOVING MULBERRY LANE! 
'A page turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'A very easy and enjoyable read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Excellent' -- ***** Reader review 
********************************************************************* 
NEW NEIGHBOURS PUT THE CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS... 
 
The inhabitants of quiet, tree-lined Mulberry Lane take a keen interest in the comings and goings of their neighbours. When number fifteen comes onto the market they are naturally intrigued to see a good-looking man being shown the property, and they hope to find a pleasant, quiet family moving in. 
 
But they are to be sadly disappointed - the house is to be a hostel for young offenders. Feelings run high. Opinions are divided - some fearing that they will be murdered in their beds, others wanting to welcome these youths into their community. 
 
However friendly the newcomers may be, there are others in Mulberry Lane who are determined to scupper the scheme at all costs...

Mulberry Lane

a beautifully written and engrossing saga about empathy and understanding from bestselling author Elvi Rhodes

Colm O'Regan

Colm O’Regan’s massive bestseller Isn’t It Well For Ye? The Book of Irish Mammies brought the wonderful world of the Irish Mammy to homes across Ireland, where it took pride of place alongside the good scissors and the bit of string that might come in handy someday. And now, before you can say “Is it that time already?”, Irish Mammy is back with more words of wisdom. 
That’s More Of It Now: The Second Book of Irish Mammies takes us even deeper into this parallel universe, with advice on everything from how to tell Mammy she is about to become a Granny to how to discipline a child (aged 0–45), touching on Irish Mammies’ role in the worlds of sport, the workplace, technology, religion and culture. Enjoy popular fairy-tales retold with an Irish Mammy at the centre of them; marvel at exclusive, not-yet-released scenes from the epic Game of Scones; and find some essential apps for the Modern Mammy’s tablet. 
Probably the most important sequel since The Godfather Part II, or at least Fifty Shades Darker, That’s More Of It Now will find a place in everybody’s heart (and stocking). Just don’t leave it on a damp step.

That's More Of It Now

The Second Book Of Irish Mammies

Alan Cowell

On November 1, 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, sipped tea in the upmarket Millennium Mayfair hotel near the American Embassy in London - tea that had been spiked with a rare radioactive isotope called Polonium 210. Twenty two days later, he was dead. And the mystery behind his murder would be revealed as more baffling and more labyrinthine than any John Le Carré plot. 
 
Litvinenko had sought asylum in London and from there had become a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin's government. His is the most high profile of a string of mysterious deaths of a number of Russian dissenters, which heralds a new era of KGB-style authoritarianism and terror. It quickly became known as one of the most mysterious and audacious crimes of the post-Cold War era, and triggered an international investigation led by London's top counterterrorism officials. 
 
Blending the pace of a thriller with original reportage and research, The Terminal Spy documents Litvinenko's life and death, the ensuing police investigation, the reaction from Vladimir Putin and others in Moscow, the Russian émigré set in London, and the implications of this case for nuclear proliferation and international terrorism in the future. It is a shocking endictment of how contemptuous of the rule of law certain governments are and an chilling reminder of the power - in every respect - of the New Russia.

The Terminal Spy

Jilly Cooper

Sue Macartney-Snape

A Country House Extravaganza Story by Jilly Cooper. Pictures by Sue Macartney-Snape. 
 
Rufus, fifth Earl of Atherstone, has no son and gloomily contemplates his vast Lincolnshire estate passing into the hands of his plain but good-natured daughter, Araminta, and her grasping cousin, Piggy Atherstone, who is determined to marry her. A serious rival for Araminta's hand, however, materialises in Bounder Cartwright, a debonair money-market gambler, whose sexual conquests are as prolific as his investments are suddenly catastrophic. By Ascot he has won the day and the wedding is fixed for September. 
 
Then, at the last minute, the events of the previous Boxing Night catch up with the Atherstones in a surprising way. Will the wedding take place or not? 
 
The combination of Jilly Cooper's irreverent tale of country house life with the colourful and perceptive paintings of Sue Macartney-Snape which inspired it, presents a wickedly funny portrait of the English upper classes at play. Araminta's Wedding is irresistible fireside reading for even the coldest of stately homes.

Araminta's Wedding

Declan Lynch

Travel a road rich in possibilities and fraught with danger ... 
 
Journalist Declan Lynch's journey begins with a deposit of €100 in an online betting account, kicking off an honest attempt to explore the mysterious allure of gambling. Braving Paddy Power, the Premiership and Belgian women's tennis tournaments on Eurosport, Lynch's darkly humorous diary entries reveal the strange logic behind the punt - and of course there's always the chance of winning a little free money along the way. 
 
Drawing on the wise words of sages from Dostoevsky to Corleone to explain, justify and occasionally even excuse his predilection for a punt, Lynch offers a rare glimpse inside the mind of that ever-sanguine individual - the gambler.

Free Money

Morey Bernstein

'I want you to keep on going back and back in your mind. And strange as it may seem you will find that there are other scenes in your memory. There are other scenes from faraway lands and distant places...' 
 
Bridey Murphy died over a century ago. A hundred years later, a normal American housewife lived Bridey's life under hypnosis, painting an utterly convincing picture of life in nineteenth-century Ireland. 
 
A sensational bestseller when it was first published, this edition, thorougly updated and revised, also addresses the critics of the Bridey Murphy sessions.

The Search For Bridey Murphy

Marc Coleman

We're in the midst of a global economic crisis and a domestic economic disaster. 
 
But enough of the hand-wringing. Where did this all come from, where are we now and, most importantly, what's going to happen next? 
 
In a compelling and jargon-free argument, economist Marc Coleman makes sense of this mess we're in with clear, accessible analysis of Ireland's economic situation and where it might be heading. 
 
Addressing first the global dimension - how early warnings were ignored, why American monetary policy failed the world and why an unfinished revolution in globalisation left us defenceless - Coleman makes a case for a new kind of capitalism. 
 
The unravelling threads that created the Irish financial crisis are also untangled. The death of competitiveness, the mismanagement of tax revenues, issues of demographics, bad urban planning, stupid banks and an unsuccessful regulator are all examined and, combined with dysfunctional politics, are shown to be the root causes of the predicament we now find ourselves in. 
 
But all is not lost. 
 
With a positive, can-do approach to the economic crisis, Coleman creates a fix-it manual for the future, explaining how Ireland can prosper again by adopting a smart economy, reforming social partnership and curing a warped fiscal cycle with budgetary and electoral reform. 
 
Ireland's economic nightmare will end. It is a dream not destroyed, merely delayed.

Back From The Brink

Ireland's Road to Recovery

Emma Freud

Clement Freud, who died suddenly in April 2009, was a man of many parts. His life embraced a variety of careers, including TV chef, gambler, owner of a night club and several racehorses, radio broadcaster, adventurer and - not least - Member of Parliament. Yet, as his son Matthew declared at his funeral, it was Freud's writing that brought us closest to the man. 
 
In addition to several books - notably the children's book Grimble (1968), Freud on Food (1978), The Book of Hangovers (1981) and a volume of autobiography, Freud Ego (2001) - he wrote on a vast range of subjects for newspapers and magazines, including the Observer, Sun, Financial Times, Sporting Life, Daily Mail, Tatler, Guardian, New Yorker and Racing Post. A Feast of Freud presents a generous helping of Clement Freud's best and most humorous writing on a broad sweep of topics, including his consuming passions of food, sport, politics and the absurdity of the human condition, reflecting his extraordinarily varied life through the prism of his distinctive deadpan humour. 
 
From the pen of the man who once joked of being 'out-grandfathered' by the younger Winston Churchill comes this richly stocked volume that every Freud fan, no matter in which of his many lives they encountered him, will treasure.

A Feast of Freud

The wittiest writings of Clement Freud

Ayn Carrillo

It all started when Ayn's boyfriend pronounced her pornophobic - in defence of his own eyebrow-raising reading material. In order to prove that she wasn't a prude (just enlightened), this self-confessed Good Girl found herself jumping headlong into the booming sex industry in order to understand what her boyfriend was so interested in. 
 
She was intrigued to hear that "Porn is not merely acceptable, it's hip" (New York Magazine) and that women were the fastest growing segment in the porn industry. Ayn's quest soon aroused the curiosity of her female friends: and it transpired that the girls - single or married, involved or not - were desperate for information. And so, (in the name of research!) Ayn created her own "porn-to-do list." The items on the list ranged from: 
 
· Reading erotica 
· Meeting a porn star 
· Going to a sex store 
· Testing vibrators 
· Visiting a strip club 
 
Along the way, Ayn ditched the porn-obsessed boyfriend, and learned that one should not try to take change from a stripper's G-string tips, nor is the Hustler store the best place to make a first impression on a hot guy. This is the result of one woman's attempt to pierce the veil that modestly covers something many women are actually fascinated by. Surprising, hilarious, informative, and ultimately non-judgmental, this is one book you won't put down - once you admit you're curious enough to pick it up!

Good Vibrations

Gerald G. Jampolsky

Diane V. Cirincione

In this fascinating guide, authors Gerald Jampolsky and Diane Cirincione explain how to apply the 12 principles of 'attitudinal healing' to everyday life, with a view to improving physical health, eliminating fears, and increasing the effectiveness of relationships.The book includes a simple, easy-to-follow 18-week programme to help you completely eliminate the hurt, stress, fear and conflict in every aspect of your life. 
 
"Most of us want to change the world, but only a few of us are willing to change our own minds!" Yet there is a shift taking place in the world, where more and more people are recognizing that it is our own thoughts and attitudes that determine how we look at the world and, ultimately, what we see. This book is for people of all ages, religions, and cultures who have a desire and a willingness to change the thoughts in their minds.

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life

Chandler Burr

In August 1991 newspaper headlines around the world announced an amazing discovery: a difference in the brains of heterosexuals and homosexuals. In 1993 American scientists claimed they had discovered a gay gene. Sexual orientation, it now seems, is not a choice, not a disease nor a faddish whim, but a fundamental biological part of who we are. 
 
Chandler Burr's ground-breaking work is the first and only comprehensive look at this revolutionary new science, biology on the farthest edges of current scientific practice. A Separate Creation: How Biology Makes Us Gay takes us into laboratories where researchers are using incredible technologies to discover what makes us straight or gay. From studies of male rats that ovulate and a species of African animal in which the female has a penis, to the political fire-storm surrounding the claim of a gay gene, from a new silicon chip made of human DNA that could discern the sexual orientation of the foetus in a woman's womb, to a working theory that homosexuality is a genetic/bacterial condition that could be 'cured' with an antibiotic, Burr explores this fascinating and often ethically ambiguous territory with clarity and an objective eye.

A Separate Creation

Gene Kerrigan

Ireland’s economic collapse hit with bewildering speed and cut deep into many lives. At a time when we most needed leadership, our politicians let us down, telling us we were all to blame for the recession and that we just needed to suffer a little pain to make everything right again. It was a Big Lie. 
This book offers an alternative view to the official cover story of austerity. It’s about the great majority of us who weren’t gambling with our future. It’s about what’s being done to us, who is doing it and why. It’s also about who benefits from this and who gets it in the neck. And what we might do about that. 
Gene Kerrigan delves deep into the muddy waters of the boom and crash, the chaos in the banks, the intervention by the troika and the erosion of democracy. He looks at how the Dáil and the media became full of mindless free market cheerleaders, how the country became laden down with unregulated bankers, and how the government acquiesced in imposing a destructive programme of austerity on the Irish people. 
Meanwhile, the elites in our society wrap the green flag around themselves, calling for sacrifice and patriotism, while they hold on fiercely to every perk and privilege. 
It’s time to tell the truth.

The Big Lie - Who Profits From Ireland’s Austerity?

Mark Henderson

This mini ebook features a sample chapter from Mark Henderson’s brilliant new book THE GEEK MANIFESTO: why science matters. 
 
The geeks are coming. And our world needs them. 
 
We live in a country where: 
-A writer can be forced into court for telling the scientific truth. 
-The media would rather sell papers by scaremongering about the MMR vaccine or GM crops than reporting the facts. 
-A government advisor was sacked for a decision based on science rather than public opinion. 
-Only one of our 650 MPs has ever worked as a research scientist. 
 
It is time to entrench scientific thinking more deeply into politics and society. To fight for policy based on evidence. 
 
The full book is available from 12th May 2012.

The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters to Government (mini ebook)

Derren Brown

Brilliant . . . crammed with wisdom and insight.' Stephen Fry on Happy 
 
In A Little Happier Derren Brown draws out the essential discoveries from his international bestseller Happy to help you lead your happiest life. 
 
Life is hard, messy and complex. But if we can learn to separate what we can control - our thoughts and actions - from all else beyond our control, we can find a surer footing with which to greet the world and experience our own concept of happiness. 
 
- None of this is real when each of us tells stories about our lives in too tidy narratives that are seldom true and rarely helpful. 
- We should be wary of goal setting: long-term goals fixate us on a future that may not happen and we may not wish for when we get there. 
- Our partner isn't right for us because no-one is. None of us is born for someone else. But perhaps those areas of frequent conflict are useful indicators of where we might ourselves be insufferable. 
 
A Little Happier's 17 inspiring and reassuring lessons will help you define and find your own happiness. Its lessons challenge us to think differently about the meaning of happiness and how we can over overcome anxiety in a difficult world. 
 
***** 'A no nonsense guide to seeing and appreciating the world we live in.' 
***** 'A brilliant, insightful and clear book. A beautiful accompaniment to Happy.' 
***** 'This book will have a big impact on people who suffer with anxiety and depression. A must read.'

A Little Happier

Notes for reassurance

Sarah Ryle

From one man’s Hackney market stall to a company serving fifty million customers in thirteen countries every week, this is the extraordinary story of one of Britain’s most remarkable companies. Told by those who themselves feature in it – Tesco’s own employees – it relates a fascinating social history as well as an epic business venture. 
 
Drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with Tesco staff, collected by National Life Stories at the British Library, these personal accounts from across the decades are frank, insightful, sometimes funny and, above all, very human. 
 
How, then, did Tesco grow from Jack Cohen’s barrow in Hackney to the hypermarkets in Hungary and Thailand and a home-delivery service to customers from Cheshire to the Czech Republic? Why and how did Tesco survive and (mostly) thrive where other British companies stalled? And what impact has Tesco’s success had on its employees and consumers? Here is Tesco’s authentic story, carefully researched and engagingly written by Sarah Ryle, told for the first time by the people at the very heart of the business.

The Making of Tesco

A Story of British Shopping

Bill Bryson

What does history really consist of? Centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - sleeping, eating, having sex, endeavouring to get comfortable. And where did all these normal activities take place? At home. 
 
This was the thought that inspired Bill Bryson to start a journey around the rooms of his own house, an 1851 Norfolk rectory, to consider how the ordinary things in life came to be. 
And what he discovered are surprising connections to anything from the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower, from scurvy to body-snatching, from bedbugs to the Industrial Revolution, and just about everything else that has ever happened, resulting in one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live, enhanced in this new edition by hundreds of stunning photographs and illustrations.

At Home (Illustrated Edition)

A short history of private life

Hallie Rubenhold

By the bestselling winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019 for THE FIVE: THE WOMEN KILLED BY JACK THE RIPPER 
 
This is the book that inspired ITV'S hit drama HARLOTS. 
 
If you ever wondered what Jane Austen's Mr Darcy and his fellows got up to on their numerous trips to London, here is the book they would certainly have carried around ... 
 
HARRIS'S LIST OF COVENT GARDEN LADIES was a bestseller in the Eighteenth Century, shifting 250,000 copoies in an age before mass consumerism. A 'guide book' published annually at Christmas, it detailed the names, attributes and 'specialities' of the capital's prostitutes. During its heyday (1759 -95) HARRIS'S LIST was the essential accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure. 
 
Hallie Rubenhold has collected the funniest, rudest and most bizarre entries penned by Jack Harris, Pimp-General-of-all-England, into this fascinating and mischievous collection.

Harris's List of the Covent Garden Ladies

By the bestselling author of THE FIVE: THE WOMEN KILLED BY JACK THE RIPPER

Melody Ermachild Chavis

Meena founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan in 1977 as a twenty-year-old Kabul University student. She was assassinated in 1987 at the age of thirty, and lives on in the hearts of all progressive Muslim women. Her voice, speaking for freedom, has never been silenced. The compelling story of Meena's struggle for democracy and women's rights in Afghanistan will inspire young women throughout the world. 
 
MEENA: HEROINE OF AFGHANISTAN is a compelling portrait of a courageous mother, poet and leader who symbolizes an entire movement of women that can influence the fate of nations. It is also a riveting account of a singular political career whose legacy has been inherited by RAWA, the women who hold the keys to a peaceful future for Afghanistan. RAWA has authorized this first-ever biography of their martyred founder.

Meena: Heroine Of Afghanistan

Julia Gillard

‘[This] should be required reading for anyone who says feminism’s work is done.’ (Evening Standard) 
 
Here, in her own words, Julia Gillard reveals what life was really like as Australia’s first female prime minister. 
 
‘I was prime minister for three years and three days. Three years and three days of resilience. Three years and three days of changing the nation. Three years and three days for you to judge.’ 
 
____________________ 
 
On Wednesday, 23 June 2010, with the government in turmoil, Julia Gillard asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot. 
 
The next day, Julia Gillard became Australia’s twenty-seventh – and first female – prime minister. Australia was alive to the historic possibilities. Here was a new approach for a new time. 
 
It was to last three extraordinary years. 
 
This is Julia Gillard’s chronicle of that turbulent time, a strikingly candid self-portrait of a political leader seeking to realize her ideals. It is her story of what it was like – in the face of government in-fighting and often hostile media – to: 
 
 Manage a hung parliament 
 
 Build a diverse and robust economy 
 
 Create an equitable and world-class education system 
 
 Ensure a dignified future for Australians with disabilities 
 
And doing this all while meeting international obligations and building strategic alliances for the future. This is a politician driven by a sense of purpose – from campus days with the Australian Union of Students, to a career in the law, to her often gritty, occasionally glittering rise up the ranks of the Australian Labour Party. 
 
Julia Gillard does not shy away from her mistakes, admitting freely to errors, misjudgements and policy failures, as well as detailing her political successes. This dazzling memoir is a reflection of what it means – and what it takes – to be a female leader in contemporary politics.

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