Neil MacGregor was Director of the National Gallery, London from 1987 to 2002 and of the British Museum from 2002 to 2015, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin from 2015 to 2018. His previous books include A History of the World in 100 Objects, Shakespeare's Restless World and Germany: Memories of a Nation, all available in Penguin and now between them translated into more than a dozen languages. In 2010, he was made a member of the Order of Merit, the UK's highest civil honour. In 2015 he was awarded the Goethe Medal and the German National Prize. In 2018 the radio series Living with the Gods received the Sandford Saint Martin Award for Religious Broadcasting.

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M L Stedman

The mesmeric new novel from the author of the award-winning global bestseller, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS 
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'Heart-wrenching and beautifully set. A gorgeous feast of a novel about family, community, love and the lengths we will go to save them all’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Homemade God 
 
‘A big, bold story of resilience and hope. I was completely swept away’ BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry 
 
'One of those rare books that fill the soul' DONAL RYAN, author of Heart be at Peace and The Spinning Heart 
 
‘Truly a masterpiece. The kind of book you will remember for the rest of your life, and I love the very bones of it’ JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 
 
'Epic, intimate and aching. I loved it’ MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of The Paper Palace 
 
'A world, a story, a cast of characters I truly lost myself in' JENNIE GODFREY, author of The List of Suspicious Things 
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Outback Western Australia, 1958: for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a remote sheep station, Meredith Downs. A million arid acres, it’s an ocean of land, where the weather is a capricious god, and time still roams untamed. 
 
One ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. Then, instead of leaving wounds to heal, Fate comes for them yet again, in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide, as he is forced to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. 
 
A tale of family and belonging, of compassion and hope, A Far-flung Life is about people trying to do their best, each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life. Exploring the lives of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive, this epic novel stands 
as a testament to the enduring power of love.

A Far-flung Life

Richard Collett

Searching for a sense of national and personal identity in an increasingly fragmented United Kingdom, Borderlands merges British history with contemporary politics and culture. Collett’s journey takes him to the banks of the River Tamar - a natural boundary dividing Anglo-Saxon Devon from Celtic Cornwall for a thousand years, to the English-Welsh borders, where Offa’s Dyke has separated the two countries since the 8th century. He then travels north to the Anglo-Scottish borderlands, Orkney and Shetland, and across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland. 
 
Richard Collett speaks to a cast of characters including Cornish nationalists, Welsh speakers teaching Welsh in England, and migrant charity workers helping refugees. For the first time in centuries, Brexit and the pandemic made hard borders an unprecedented reality. Calls for Scottish, Welsh, and even Cornish independence, are a constant backdrop to Collett’s journey. In Northern Ireland, there are fears of a hard border reigniting ‘The Troubles’, while in southern England, issues of immigration have turned the Kent coast into a maritime frontier and political battleground. 
 
Collett explores the rise of regional identities in the midst of an ever-loosening sense of national unity, but ultimately, this isn’t a book about differences and divisions. Borderlands is a travel book that tries to find what unites Britain.

Along the Borders

In search of what divides and unites us

Laura Barnett

From Sunday Times Number 1 bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club Pick, The Versions of Us, a beautiful novel about six lifelong friends and one unforgettable year, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. 
 
‘A perfect, can’t-put-down summer read!’ Red 
 
‘A beautifully written story about second chances…couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’ Heat 
 
'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful… a fantastic read’ 5-star reader review 
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Six friends who were inseparable at university find themselves reunited at an engagement party twenty years later... 
 
Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay-at-home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business. 
 
When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. 
 
Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose? 
 
Births, Deaths And Marriages is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. 
 
It’s about births, deaths, marriages... and everything in between. 
 
Praise for Laura Barnett and Births Deaths and Marriages: 
 
‘My first read by Laura Barnett and won’t be my last…richly written and so moving’ Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things 
 
‘A must-read’ Closer 
 
‘I loved Births, Deaths and Marriages. Laura’s ability to jump between so many different lives and to keep those strands alive in the reader’s mind reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors’ Georgina Moore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Garnett Girls 
 
'A compelling and comforting read that reminds us about the power, support and importance of found family' Kate Sawyer, Costa Prize shortlisted author of The Stranding 
 
‘Barnett has that rare talent, like Curtis Sittenfeld or Kate Atkinson, of building up the mundane aspects of everyday life until they acquire meaning’ The Times 
 
Readers love Births, Deaths & Marriages: 
 
‘Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day...I couldn't put it down.’ 
 
'A rich, emotional read. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself rooting for each of them.' 
 
'An emotional, heartfelt book about the joys and sorrows of life. It is about love in all its forms, the friendships that shape us, and the quiet moments that define who we become.' 
 
'Perfect blend of humour, poignancy, and authenticity' 
 
‘Wow! Just wow! A book for anyone who has loved, for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one, for anyone who has contemplated or been married, for every parent, indeed, for anyone who has lived.’ 
 
‘A hugely enjoyable novel which celebrates the durability of friendships that have weathered the storm of growing up.’ 
 
'Relatable, funny, moving and hopeful — a fantastic, life-affirming read.' 
 
'Characters so real you feel they could be your friends.' 
 
'A celebration of life’s milestones and the friendships that endure them.' 
 
'I couldn’t bear to leave that world behind — I wanted more!'

Births, Deaths and Marriages

John Boyne

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. 
 
But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes? 
 
Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

Water

A haunting, confronting novel from the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies

Jane Flett

The year that Florida fell into the sea, I killed a man and joined a cult and ran away to Mexico. I ate human flesh for the first time. 
 
It’s another sticky summer in New Orleans and the world is ending. Natural disasters abound, tourists are descending on the Old Town and Marcy’s old wrestling scar has reopened. It’s enough to make any girl want to take her seemingly perfect husband and tedious job and set it all on fire. 
 
So when Marcy meets a crew of degenerate filmmakers who are keen to whisk her away from her ordinary life, she lets herself be swept into their world of filth, arson and debauchery. 
 
For their part, they’re convinced Marcy’s strange scar is a sign she’s the Chosen One they need to lead their community through the end of times. For hers, she’s never been able to resist that kind of flattery. 
 
Praise for Freakslaw 
'A transgressive, inventive dark fantasy' Guardian 
'Cracking with desire, hedonism, angst, violence and sex' Heat 
'A celebration of the marginalised' Observer 
'As frightening as it is seductive' Herald

Welcome to the Chaoskampf

Sophy Roberts

In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants — if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants.Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. She digs deep into historic records to reckon with our broken relationship with animals, revealing an extraordinary — and enduring — story of colonial greed, ineptitude, hypocrisy and folly.

A Training School for Elephants

Kim Hana

Hwang Sunwoo

At some point between living alone and becoming single, Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana found each other, and decided to live together in a nice apartment where their four cats would finally have the freedom to run around. Together they became a family - and redefined it. 
 
At a time housing costs have skyrocketed whilst the birth rates plummets, these two independent Korean women in their late forties share their views on society and its expectations of them. And, intent neither to marry or to live alone, they reflect on the comfort of their cohabiting friendship as it blossoms into a life full of joy and meaning. 
 
From housing insecurity and access to health care, to solo dining and stigmatised cat ladies, the loaded, self-sacrificing demands of filial piety and obligations to in-laws, Two Women Living Together impugns social scripts by spelling them out plainly. But also, and especially, by showing what it’s like to choose differently. 
 
Quietly radical, full of warmth and wit, Two Women Living Together celebrates carving out your own path, cats, female friendship, and a different kind of family.

Two Women Living Together

Jan Carson

From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a stunning, imaginative novel about a community living on a small group of islands. Sometimes a utopia is not all that it seems... 
 
In Few & Far Between, award-winning writer Jan Carson, imagines an alternative version of Northern Ireland’s recent past. A prime minister with a mad plan to create a new county. An archipelago of haunted islands. A community seeking refuge from the Troubles. The perfect place to escape to - or so it appears. 
 
It’s summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years. How will they cope with modern life? Will the Ark give up its secrets before it sinks? 
 
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Praise for Jan Carson: 
 
'Jan Carson is a born storyteller: her work is so imaginative, whimsical, mischievous and brave, but tender and curious too — you never know where she's going to take you next, so reading her is always an adventure. Exactly how it should be' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies 
 
'Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists' Donal Ryan, author of Heart be at Peace 
 
'[The Fire Starters] blew me away with its power, anger and wit' Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year 
 
'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times 
 
'Absolutely magnificent: dark, witty, charming' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake 
 
'Heart-rending, hilarious . . . It's a belter.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

Few and Far Between

Francine Toon

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Pine, comes a haunting and atmospheric new gothic thriller, set in the brooding Scottish landscape. 
 
In this corner of Fife, summer nights meant parties on wind-blown beaches, wrapped in hoodies and denim jackets, pretending you weren’t cold in the stubborn evening light. 
 
JOANIE, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has been looking forward to her big escape. But at the eleventh hour this dream slips through her hands. Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – a pair of charismatic academics at the town’s university – who offer her a new kind of freedom. 
 
CAMERON, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas, a question burns in his mind: whatever happened to Joanie? It’s been a decade since he saw his former friend. But as he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs. How far should he go in pursuit of the truth? 
 
Praise for Francine Toon: 
 
'Dark, beguiling, and steeped in menace, Francine Toon spins a brooding mystery which shimmers with unease' Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb 
 
'A chilling, slow-burn novel' i Newspaper 
 
'A taut, eerie exploration of memory, belief, and the treacherous edges of girlhood. Francine Toon has a knack for getting deep under the skin' Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark 
 
‘Toon’s gift for creating an otherworldly atmosphere in small towns with big secrets is present once again in a novel that explores the desire to escape the ordinary’ Scotsman 
 
'A menacing, wind-swept thriller that creeps up on you as stealthily as a figure in the dark' Anna Bailey, author of Tall Bones

Bluff

Being in limbo, 30,000 feet in the air, offers time to reflect and take stock. For Aaron Umber, it’s an opportunity to connect with his 14-year-old son as they travel halfway across the world to meet a woman who isn’t expecting them. 
 
Unsettled by his past, and anxious for his future, Aaron is at a crossroads in life. The damage inflicted upon him during his youth has made him the man he is, but now threatens to widen the growing fissures between him and his only child. This trip could bind them closer together, or tear them further apart. 
 
In this penetrating examination of action and consequence, fault and attribution, acceptance and resolution, John Boyne gives us a redemptive story of a father and a son on a moving journey to mend their troubled lives.

Kim Willis

'This book is an act of excavation, and an act of remembering.' 
 
As Kim Willis drifts from the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, she yearns for a new set of stories to light her way. Here, she is pulled towards the source of the Severn, hearing whispers of ancient matriarchs: shape-shifting enchantresses, scaly nymphs and goddesses who once commanded our lands. These are no fair maidens, but powerful warrioresses and animalistic beasts, snaking along the edges of watery places where we meet the otherworld in the shadows. 
 
As she uncovers the ancient myths hidden in the rugged landscapes of the British Isles, the stories of women like Arianrhod, Melusine and Cerridwen awaken a forgotten power. Journeying from the Severn to Skye, Eryri to Northumberland, Kim discovers new magic in the tales of old, unveiling forgotten truths about grief and healing, while charting a new course through sisterhood and sexuality, fertility and freedom. 
 
Through the threads of folklore, history and landscape, Kim identifies a better way of being for modern women, and crafts a new vision for Britain where women are - and always were - a force of nature.

No Fair Maidens

A wild journey with the lost goddesses of Britain

Dr Lucy Rogers

'My only complaint about the writing of Lucy Rogers is that there isn't enough of it' Tim Radford, Guardian 
 
The sky is a world of endless wonder. From the intricate dance of clouds and the vibrant hues of the aurora borealis to the marvel of effortless soaring birds and the silent majesty of the stars, it is a living storybook. 
 
In Up, inventor and engineer Dr Lucy Rogers explores the beauty, science, and surprises of the world above. 
 
Join her on a marvellous adventure through a kite market in India, creep through the Borneo jungle to witness millions of bats pour out of a cave at dusk, venture to Tornado Alley to chase the raw power of storms, and journey to Mexico to stand in awe of a total solar eclipse. 
 
Up is for anyone who has ever paused to marvel at a shooting star, wondered about the ingenuity of human flight, or dreamed of touching a rainbow. Bringing rich insights, personal stories, and a very real sense of awe for the natural world, Dr Rogers explores the science behind these phenomena and reveals all there is to discover if you look Up.

A scientist's guide to the magic above us

Yehudis Fletcher

As the daughter of a rabbi raised in an Orthodox Jewish community, Yehudis struggled to conform to the strict expectations placed upon her and her siblings. Outspoken, curious and desperate to know more about G-d, she felt fenced in by arbitrary rules and questions left unanswered. 
 
As she grew older, these restrictions intensified and her questions for G-d hung heavier than ever. Repeatedly let down by those who were supposed to protect her and pushed on to a path that seemed to take her further away from who she really was, she began to yearn for a life where she could embrace all facets of herself. 
 
When Yehudis’s sexuality came to blows with the expectations of her family and her community, the pressure to inhabit a binary position reached fever pitch. Confronted with either losing the faith she loved or losing herself, Yehudis made the most daring decision of all: she decided to stay. 
 
Wry and exhilarating, Chutzpah is a fearless exploration of what is possible when one person simply refuses to choose between abandoning their roots and abandoning themselves.

Chutzpah

A memoir of faith, sexuality and daring to stay

Eliana Ramage

A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK | A LITHUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 | AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2025 
 
The astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel about a young woman whose quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut irrevocably alters the fates of the people she loves most. 
 
‘Will break your heart and take you to the stars. I loved it.’ Kiley Reid, bestselling author of Such a Fun Age 
 
‘A breathtaking debut about family, identity, and love across generations.’ Reese Witherspoon 
 
‘A powerful story about the mixture of combativeness, compromise and love that forms the heart of a family.’ Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time 
 
Steph Harper is on the run. 
 
When she was five, her mother ran – with Steph and her younger sister in tow – from an abusive husband into the arms of a small Cherokee community, where she hoped they might finally belong. 
 
But Steph soon sets her sights as far away as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing interfere with her dream to become an astronaut, and ultimately, to go to the moon. 
 
In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with the three women who know and love her most dearly: her younger sister Kayla, an artist whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; her college girlfriend Della, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her family as a young girl through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and her mother Hannah, who has held up her family’s history as a beacon of inspiration to her kids, all the while keeping the truth about her own past a secret. 
 
Told through these women’s interwoven lives, and spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive coming-of-age novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths one woman will go to find a little space for herself. 
 
Praise for To The Moon and Back 
A singular, sonorous, wholehearted novel, one I wanted to devour and savour at once.’ Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had 
 
‘A brilliant, faceted, warm-hearted novel, with characters to love and truly root for, and pages that seem to turn themselves.’ Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of the National Book Award Finalist All This Could Be Different 
 
‘A captivating debut about family, queer identity, love, career and heritage. This novel has something for everyone.’ De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills 
 
‘A soaring masterpiece… Every character in this novel will stay with you forever. I love this book.’ Casey Plett, author of A Dream of a Woman 
 
‘A passionate and compulsively readable novel. Dare I say, a stellar debut.’ Margot Livesey, author of The Road to Belhaven

To the Moon and Back

Madeline Cash

The funny and compassionate new literary novel that turns family dysfunction into an art form. 
 
‘A voice like no other’ Lena Dunham, award-winning writer, director and creator of comedy-drama Girls 
 
'Loud, hilarious, shocking and sensitive' Megan Nolan, prize-listed author of Acts of Desperation 
 
For the three Flynn daughters, it’s been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed ‘War Crimes Wes’. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. And the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens. 
 
Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. 
 
Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs turns family dysfunction into an art form. 
 
 
Praise for Lost Lambs: 
 
‘Goes off like a firework. As sincere as it is funny (and it’s very funny)’ Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal 
 
‘A great, great American novel’ Samantha Hunt, Women’s Prize Shortlisted author of The Seas 
 
‘A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction… Loud, hilarious, shocking, and sensitive’ Megan Nolan, award-winning author of Ordinary Human Failings 
 
‘With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family’ Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection – National Book Award Finalist 
 
‘Madeline Cash is a humourist in the darkly humanist tradition of George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, of Vonnegut and Twain’ Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing 
 
‘Immersive and propulsive and I never wanted it to end. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters… I loved it. I devoured it’ Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

Lost Lambs

Kate Hope Day

'A gorgeous literary novel that asks us to imagine all the possible versions of ourselves that we can imagine' J COURTNEY SULLIVAN 
'A suburban srama build to leap form page to screen' Kirkus Reviews 
'Fascinating and moving' EOWYN IVEY 
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In a sleepy Oregon town at the base of a dormant volcano, four neighbours find their lives upended when they see visions of themselves in an alternate reality, and have to question the choices they’ve made as natural disaster looms. 
 
For fans of Celeste Ng's LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and TV serial SIX FEET UNDER. 
 
In the shadow of a dormant volcano in Oregon lies a small town much like any other – though mistier perhaps, and greener. Look closely and you’ll see four neighbours plagued by strange visions. 
 
 Ginny, a devoted surgeon, is troubled by thoughts of a beautiful colleague in her bed. 
 
 Mark, a wildlife scientist, foresees imminent and devastating natural disaster. 
 
 Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of a small baby, envisages herself pregnant once more – just as she is returning to her game-changing research. 
 
 And then there’s Samara, a young estate agent, who glimpses images of her dead mother alive again, healthy and vibrant. 
 
 As the volcano begins to rumble, it becomes clear that these visions mean more than at first it seemed, and that the fate of this close-knit community hangs in the balance.

If, Then

On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness. 
 
Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being? 
 
In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?

Fire

Anna Bailey

For fans of All the Colours of the Dark and Where the Crawdads Sing, a beautiful atmospheric thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones 
 
THE TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH 
 
'Propulsive, bold and brutal...A truly atmospheric thriller.' Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of All the Colours of the Dark 
 
'Bewitching... thought provoking, character driven crime fiction.' Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train 
 
‘Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages.’ Will Dean, bestselling author of The Chamber 
 
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The Labasques aren’t like other families. 
 
Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. 
 
So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. 
 
Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed everything she valued most. Now, there may be no way for her to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution, if she can find out what really did happen to Cutter... 
 
Set against the haunting beauty of Southern Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is a compulsive, evocative novel about a tight-knit community and the secrets they want to keep hidden. 
‘What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting’ The Times Book of the Month 
 
‘A brooding, evocative novel’ i paper best new crime and thriller books‘The author hit the Sunday Times bestseller list with their debut… and I’m certain this will follow’ Prima‘A remarkable job of conjuring up the haunted swamplands of southern Louisiana…A particularly spicy gumbo of a thriller’ Daily Mail 
 
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WHAT READERS & AUTHORS ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR LAST WILD DAYS: 
 
'A masterpiece...you will be hooked!' 5-star reader review 
 
'A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.' Colin Walsh, bestselling author of Kala 
 
'If you like Chris Whitaker (another Brit who does small-town America so well) this is for you' 5-star reader review 
 
'The heat and humidity sink into your bones as you are sucked into the lives of the people of the backwaters' 5-star reader review 
 
'With a setting as atmospheric as Where the Crawdads Sing...a stunningly written thriller' Nikki Smith, author of Look What You Made Me Do 
 
'A brooding atmosphere with loads of twists along the way that will keep you guessing' 5-star reader review 
 
'Exquisite. A rare, extraordinary talent' C.J.Cooke, bestselling author of The Lighthouse Witches 
 
 
'Every page is enthralling and to be read with your breath held against what's coming next.' 5-star reader review 
 
'Likely to be one of my books of the year' 5-star reader review 
 
'Filled with lines worth tattooing and passages worth framing.' Megan Collins, author of Cross my Heart 
 
'Anna Bailey is the master of things that move in the dark, with language so lush you feel like you could reach out and touch it' Hayley Scrivenor, bestselling author of Dirt Town 
 
'Raw and unflinching...a stunner.' Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour 
 
'I didn't want this one to end...a perfect crime thriller' 5-star reader review

Our Last Wild Days

James Aldred

Join James Aldred on a captivating journey, encountering master craftsmen, British wildlife, and a deep passion for a remarkable landscape. 
 
There are some moments in childhood that are frozen in time, vivid and vital, an anchor. When James Aldred tracked down an old Romani wagon he once played in, he found himself inside one such moment again. Though brambles had overtaken its rotted boards and its wheels were barely there, it transported him to a magical summer in the New Forest forty years ago and awakened in him the possibility of reliving it with his young family. Pairing an ambition to restore the wagon to its former glory with a determination to share the Forest with his children, he embarked on a remarkable journey. 
 
In his evocative memoir, Aldred chronicles his return to a cherished childhood landscape, rich with the history of the Romani families who once roamed freely there. As he painstakingly restores the wagon, Aldred delves into both the New Forest's natural history and storied past, tracing its roots back to the 16th century and even further to the time of William the Conqueror. Camera traps reveal otters hunting in the brook, while the nearby goshawk nest and fox earth speak to the area's thriving wildlife. 
 
Masterfully observed, A Wagon in the Woods is a celebration of both people and place, and the timeless bond between land, history and the enduring spirit of adventure.

A Wagon in the Woods

Pursuing a dream in an ancient forest

Siddharth Kara

'A horrific tale of the slave trade, destined to become a classic' New York Times 
 
* The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2025 
* Time’s 100 Must Read Books of 2025 
* The New Yorker 12 Essential Non-Fiction Reads 
 
From the New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red, discover the incredible true story and page-turning account of the 18th century slave ship, often known as the Zong yet actually named the Zorg - ironically meaning 'care' - that sparked the human rights campaign to end the slave trade. 
 
Perfect for fans of David Grann’s The Wager and The Wide, Wide Sea by Hampton Sides. 
‘Remarkable, riveting’, Adam Hochschild, historian and bestselling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Bury the Chains 
 
In 1781, the Zorg set off from The Netherlands to West Africa and from there onto the Caribbean. The fateful voyage would alter the course of history forever. 
 
By the time its journey ends, the Zorg would become the first undeniable argument against slavery. 
 
When a series of unpredictable weather events and navigational errors led to the Zorg sailing off course and running low on supplies, the ship's captain threw more than a hundred slaves overboard in order to save the crew and the most valuable slaves. The ship's owners then claimed their loss on insurance, a first for slaves who had not been killed due to insurrection or died of natural causes. 
 
The insurers refused to pay due to the higher than usual mortality rate of the slaves on board, leading to a trial which initially found in their favour, in which Chief Justice Mansfield compared the slaves to horses. Thanks to the outrage of one man present in court that day, a retrial was held. For the first time, concepts such as human rights and morality entered the discourse on slavery in a courtroom case that boiled down to a simple yet profound question: Were the Africans on board people or cargo? 
 
In his riveting new book, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Siddharth Kara brings history to life, showcasing how the Zorg’s fateful voyage exposed the harsh reality of the slave trade. 
 
The case catapulted the emerging anti-slavery movement to one of the most consequential moral campaigns that changed the course of history. 
 
The Zorg is the astonishing yet little-known true story of one of the most consequential ships that ever crossed the Atlantic.

The Zorg

A Tale of Greed, Murder and the Abolition of Slavery

John Crace

John Sutherland

‘Give me the daggers and I’ll pin the blame/ On Duncan’s grooms who both are also slain. /A little water clears us of this deed /Though a large scotch might also do the trick...’  To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this is the first of a new collection of the Bard's greatest plays, digested to a few thousand words with invaluable side notes from John Sutherland.  Funny and incredibly clever, these parodies are a joy for those who know their Shakespeare, perfect for the theatre goer needing a quick recap, and a massive relief for those just desperate to pass their English exam.

Incomplete Shakespeare: Macbeth

Catherine Newman

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'The kind of book that pulls up a chair, pours the wine, and dives deep... like spending hours with the friend who sees your mess and loves you more for it.' Alison Espach, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding People 
 
'Gorgeously human, tender-hearted, and delightfully funny' Nussaibah Younis, bestselling author of Fundamentally 
 
'A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
 
'Infectiously funny and surprisingly moving, Wreck reminds us that we are each, in our way, trying to make sense of the big things with some very small tools' Rachel Joyce, bestselling author of The Homemade God 
_______ 
 
Rocky, Nick, Willa and Jamie. A normal loving, anxious, messy, relatable, family. 
 
Rocky has her own her way of processing disasters: 1. This could happen to us. 2. This couldn’t happen to us. And then there’s a secret third column: ‘This could happen to us unless I am very careful/ superstitious/ grateful…’ 
 
So when a former classmate of Jamie’s dies in a seemingly random accident, Rocky becomes obsessed. She's also developed a niggling medical condition that won't go away. On the surface, she is still living her best life as the irreverent, funny, unpredictable beating heart of her family. Her father is his unique, adorable self; Willa is prone to bouts of existential angst whilst berating the fact that her mother has zero filter; Nick is steady, logical, sometimes infuriating. 
 
But if accidents can happen – and they do – is it safe to love anyone? 
 
Laugh out loud funny and deeply emotional, WRECK follows Rocky and her family through one rollercoaster year as they share the unpredictable, beautiful messiness of life. 
 
_______ 
 
PRAISE FOR SANDWICH & WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS: 
 
'Breezy New York Nora-Ephron-style wit meets hospice memoir to create something profoundly beautiful...comforting, so funny, moving but never mawkish and packed with all kinds of love. It's one of my favourite books ever' bestselling author, MARIAN KEYES 
 
'One of the funniest books I've ever read' FEARNE COTTON, STYLIST 
 
'I adored this book. Jubilant, devastating, tender, heartbreaking, I found myself both in tears and 'snorty-laughing'. A masterclass on friendship, family love, memory, and the messiness of life and love and dying. Pure genius' RACHEL JOYCE, author of the bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 
 
'Tragically funny, with moments of clarity and wisdom, Newman writes loss and laughter in equally brilliant amounts' BONNIE GARMUS, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry 
 
'Newman is truly a master of taking complex and chaotic human emotion and making sense of it ... wise and exquisitely written' GUARDIAN 
 
'Sandwich is joy in book form. I laughed continuously, except for the parts that made me cry. Catherine Newman does a miraculous job reminding us of all the wonder there is to be found in life.' ANN PATCHETT, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

Wreck

Wasteland Girls is a collection of lyrical, incisive and luminous stories by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones and Our Last Wild Days. 
 
In 'Long Way to Come for a Sip of Water', which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, Texan man Ready drives through a divided US to see his dying brother. Wasteland Girls, the title story, is a powerful tale of a family of hoarders, of magic and revenge. In Yukon 1940, a woman sits beside the body of her husband in a remote cabin, trapped by the frozen sea. The Girl in the Ground follows a woman who suddenly reappears after twenty years of absence, but for whom the past is a void. 
 
Deeply atmospheric and soulful, the stories in Wasteland Girls are inspired by the author's experience of living amid the beautiful but often ferocious remote landscapes of the US, and among the wild and secretive people who inhabit them.

Wasteland Girls

Anthony Delaney

Mother Clap's Holborn coffee house is open to all comers, a place of companionship and community, until a tip-off leads to a midnight raid. 
 
Two women, exiled from their families, set up a utopian homestead in a remote Welsh cottage, inspiring a generation of Romantic poets. 
 
The celebrated Chevalier d'Eon, soldier, diplomat and spy, challenges a rival to a fencing match. The sweepstake is not over who will win, but whether the Chevalier is a man or a woman. 
 
In this dazzling work of restorative history, Dr Anthony Delaney has traced the stories of people daring to challenge society's expectations, unearthing archives and court records to reveal the tragedies and the joys of queer life three centuries ago. Breathing new life into the forgotten and offering radical new interpretations of celebrated figures such as Anne Lister, Queer Georgians is an invitation to view our shared history in a whole new light.

Queer Georgians

A hidden history of lovers, lawbreakers and homemakers

Kang Jiyoung

A hilariously unsettling tale of love, food and one woman's unconventional quest to support her family. 
_____________ 
 
I am no ordinary ajumma. I am a killer 
 
When Mrs Shim - widowed, unemployed, with two children at home and a fridge to fill - answers a job ad at the Smile Detective Agency, she boosts its fortunes forever. For Mrs Shim is sharp as a blade, handles business cleanly and is like a padlock when it comes to keeping secrets. 
 
By day, she prepares kimchi for her family and her neighbour with dementia; by night Mrs Shim is out on a contract. 
 
But what starts as a need for survival escalates into a thirst for vengeance. For Mrs. Shim is done with being everyone’s doormat. 
 
Diving headfirst into her new career among petty criminals, crooked cops, ghosts and assassins, Mrs Shim's past comes hurtling towards her. 
 
Savage and unexpectedly moving, Kang Jiyoung presents a kaleidoscopic tale of twisted love, unhinged loathing and hopeful reinvention. Her world of endearing misfits, dead bodies and good food marks the exuberant arrival of a major new international literary voice.

Mrs Shim is a Killer

Charles Foster

We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive. 
 
This book travels to the far frontiers of the planet, and of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic and political movements, and of life itself: from a rocky precipice in the Peloponnese where the first human set foot in Europe to an ancient Egyptian temple where monotheism was invented; from St Francis, kissing lepers’ sores to the giant bird-eating mice of St Kilda. 
 
Why do we stare at sunsets? Why do we celebrate birthdays and grieve for those who are gone? Why do all adventures begin when we leave and get lost? Who has the better view of reality – the Government or the dispossessed? And what happens when we live with the knowledge that we’re all teetering on the edge of the dark?

The Edges of the World

At the margins of life, lands and history

Terry Pratchett

A Discworld series tie-in book exploring the city of Ankh-Morpork with full colour illustrations and fold out map. Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. 
 
Essential for any fan of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, this stunning and beautifully illustrated gift book - complete with pull out map - details everything you could possibly want and need to know about Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's principal city. Maps, directories, walking tours, accommodation, food and drink - everything is included. No traveller destined for Ankh-Morpork should leave home without it! 
 
What readers are saying... 
'Marvellous - had me giggling like a loon for hours' -- ***** Reader review 
'A work of art' -- ***** Reader review 
'I started laughing 2 seconds after opening this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Sumptuous' -- ***** Reader review 
'Amazing' -- ***** Reader review 
'A must have for all Discworld fans' -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************************** 
Greetings, adventurer! We lay before you this most comprehensive gazetteer encompassing all the streets of Ankh-Morpork, as well as information on its principal businesses, hotels, taverns, inns, and places of entertainment and refreshment - all enhanced by the all-new and compleat map of our great city state. 
 
We ask that when you pore over this glorious work, you spare some thought for the humble cartographers and surveyors who made journeys into the darker corners of our metropolis - no less dangerous than the wilds of Skund or Bhangbhangduc. To some the only memorial is the map you now possess. Others, in their quest for knowledge, paid the highest price that scholarship demands, which is to say, a day off in lieu. 
 
And so we dedicate this map and these accompanying words to the officers, councillors and members of the Merchants' Guild and to all who will find in its pages paths yet to tread and places yet to explore within the magnificent wonder that is the city of Ankh-Morpork. 
 
A gift like no other, this stunning package expertly conjures up the sights, sounds, people and places of Ankh-Morpork in ways fans have previously only been able to imagine.

The Compleat Ankh-Morpork

the essential guide to the principal city of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Ankh-Morpork

Kate Atkinson

It's the summer of 1951 and everyone is looking to put the dark days of the war behind them. The government’s solution: The Festival of Britain, a celebration of the country’s creativity, grit and ingenuity. 
 
For foreign correspondent-turned-war reporter, Harry Flynn, it might offer the chance of redemption after a bad war in the Far East. But when he returns to London, the peace proves no less easy to negotiate. Having failed to resume his journalistic career, he reluctantly joins an oddball team of misfits, ne'er do wells and downright chancers helping to ready the Festival of Britain for launch. 
 
Flynn’s attempts at some semblance of a romantic life also founder when one of his dates goes missing and he is deemed the last person to see her alive. Could he have been in some way responsible for her disappearance? 
 
Little does he realise that the answer to some of his mounting problems may lie in the hands of a precocious straight-talking thirteen-year-old called Veronica and a rather scruffy terrier who goes by the name of Mrs Betty… 
 
Brilliantly plotted, witty and compelling, Our Noble Selves once again affirms Kate Atkinson’s place as one of the greatest chroniclers of our times.

Our Noble Selves

Sue Black

Pioneering forensic scientist, anatomist and anthropologist, Professor Dame Sue Black takes the reader into our criminal courts’ witness box from the perspective of an expert witness, the forensic scientist, explaining exactly what that job is, what it demands, how the role evolved, and its likely future. 
 
The expert witness sits at the crux of the relationship between law enforcement, science and the legal system. When that relationship works well, it makes for compelling fiction, television and movies. When it works less well, it makes for compelling and explosive news headlines. 
 
In Dissection of an Expert Witness, Sue Black puts the relationship between these different institutions, and how they affect and are affected by the expert witness, under the microscope. Using shocking landmark cases that expose both the strengths and weaknesses of the interconnection between disciplines - she probes: In which cases did we get it right? In which did we get it wrong? And if we had done it differently, might the pendulum of justice have swung another way? 
 
Incisive and compelling, following the impact of advances in technology to changes in funding and the effect of our gladiatorial system, Sue Black tracks the journey of this most intriguing of sciences through to its inevitable conclusion - and the toll it may take not only on experts but ultimately how justice plays out.

Dissection of an Expert Witness

Is this the cutting edge of forensic science?

Christopher Somerville

‘Somerville is one of our finest gazetteers of the British countryside. He brings his formidable knowledge to bear on his personal quest to explore the cathedrals in this entrancing book’ 
The Spectator 
 
Christopher Somerville, author of the acclaimed The January Man, pictured cathedrals as great unmoving bastions of tradition. But as he journeys among Britian’s favourites, old and new, he discovers buildings and communities that have been in constant upheaval for a thousand years. Here are stories of the monarchs and bishops who ordered the construction of these buildings, the masons whose genius brought them into being, and the peasants who worked and died on the scaffolding. We learn of rogue saints exploited by holy sinners, the pomp and prosperity that followed these ships of stone, the towns that grew up in their shadows. 
 
Meeting believers and non-believers, architects and archaeologists, the cleaner who dusts the monuments and the mason who judges stone by its taste, we delve deep into the private lives and the uncertain future of these ever-voyaging Ships of Heaven. 
 
‘Somerville paints word pictures of exquisite quality’ 
Church Times

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