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'Memorable... One of [China's] most astute and sensitive foreign observers' Financial Times'Compassionate... full of warmth' GuardianMore than twenty years after teaching English to China's first boom generation at a small college in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to teach the next generation.At the same time, Hessler's twin daughters became the only Westerners in a student body of about two thousand in their local primary school. Through reconnecting with his previous students now in their forties - members of China's "Reform generation" - and teaching his current undergraduates, Hessler is able to tell an intimately unique story about China's incredible transformation over the past quarter-century. In the late 1990s, almost all of Hessler's students were the first of their families to enrol in higher education, sons and daughters of subsistence farmers who could offer little guidance as their children entered a brand-new world.By 2019, when Hessler arrived at Sichuan Univer

'Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.' Liz Nugent, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Strange Sally DiamondFor fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, an exhilarating novel about an isolated town neighboured by its own past and future, and a young girl who faces an impossible choice... Would you sacrifice the future for love?Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on an elite council that decides who may cross her town's heavily guarded borders.To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn't supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he's still alive in Odile's present. Edme-who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly know Odile-is going to die. Sworn to secrecy to preserve the timel

Ren lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup. High on the forested slopes, she survives by hunting and trading - and forgetting. But when a young soldier comes to the mount

Between the 1950s and 1970s Australia was the world's tennis superpower, producing players who dominated the grand slam events and the tour in both the amateur and professional eras. Of all of our pla

A powerful celebration of brilliant speeches by women throughout the ages, from Boudica to Greta Thunberg.'A treasure trove of trailblazers...' Cathy NewmanLooking at lists of the greatest speeches of

What was it really like to take the LNER's Art Deco Coronation streamliner from King's Cross to Edinburgh, to cross the Atlantic by the SS Normandie, to fly with Imperial Airways from Southampton to S

In the wake of her mother's death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the l

The author team behind worldwide bestseller The Courage To Be Disliked return with the must-have companion volume. In The Courage To Be Happy, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga again distil their wisdo

The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. But the story of this remarkable fami

The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it.For rare-book collectors, an original co

In the middle of her life, a writer finds herself in a dark wood, despairing and uncomprehending at how modern Britain has become a place of such greed and indifference. In an attempt to understand he

Inviting readers on an intricately illustrated journey into the urban forest, Sylvan City is both a practical guide to identifying twenty of the most common trees standing sentry on our street corners

The earliest evidence of a human and a pet can be traced as far back as 26,000 BC in France where a boy and his 'canid' took a walk through a cave. Their foot and paw prints were preserved together on

In 2012, whilst working at the Royal Horticultural Society's library, Fiona Davison unearthed a book of handwritten notes that dated back to 1822. The notes, each carefully set out in neat copperplate

Vespasian is tasked with the impossible. Should he quell the revolt in Judaea, as Nero the emperor has instructed, or must he resort to the unthinkable and sabotage his own campaign? If his conquest s

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller comes the remarkable story of an unsung hero of World War II. Spearhead honors an unsung hero of World War II, Clarence Smoyers, who deplored violence bu

Katharine Smyth was a student at Oxford when she first read Virginia Woolf's modernist masterpiece To the Lighthouse in the comfort of an English sitting room, and in the companionable silence she sha

Returning to the UK in September 2010 after serving in Iraq as the political adviser to the top American general, Emma Sky felt no sense of homecoming. She soon found herself back in the Middle East t

Tim Waterstone is one of Britain's most successful businessmen, having built the Waterstone's empire that started with one bookshop in 1982. In this charming and evocative memoir, he recalls the child

In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend and reader. From a commencement speech to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate th

As smart and murderous as Killing Eve, My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water... When Korede's dinn

Forged in fire. Bound by honor. Haunted by loss. 8th Century Sweden: Erlan Aurvandil, a Viking outlander, has pledged his sword to Sviggar Ivarsson, King of the Sveärs, and sworn enemy of the Dan

In this sweeping global survey, one of Britain's most distinguished journalists and media commentators analyses for the first time the state of journalism worldwide as it enters the post-truth age

The end of World War II signaled the rapid end of the European African empires. In 1945, only four African countries were independent; by 1963, 30 African states created the Organization of African Un

This superb anthology showcases 100 years of peerless writing on the Ashes from The Cricketer magazine. Insightful new contributions from today's best cricket writers including Gideon Haigh, Simon Hug

"India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. There were vast riches to be exploited and vast numbers of people to be subjugated. How better to achieve these aims than by building a rail ne

Peter Jones takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the highways and byways of Roman life and culture, telling the amazing stories behind the original Latin meanings and uses of hundreds of ou

A.D. 9: In the depths of the Teutoburg Wald, in a landscape riven by ravines, darkened by ancient oak and bisected by fast-flowing streams, Arminius of the Cherusci led a confederation of six Germanic

It begins in the fog, with a bleak village funeral. In the early hours of the following morning, Merrily Watkins and her daughter Jane are made aware that Aidan Lloyd, son of a wealthy farmer, will no

From ancient Egypt to the Tudors to the Nazis, the film industry has often defined how we think of the past. But how much of what you see on the screen is true? And does it really matter if filmmakers

In this unusual and vibrant examination of the life and times of Britain's most iconic living figure, A. N. Wilson considers the history of the monarchy, drawing a line that stretches from Queen Victo

Exactly 800 years ago, Magna Carta established the right not to be thrown in the Tower of London for being slightly irritating, which is the closest the Brits have ever got to a written constitution.

The ancient Greeks gave us our alphabet and much of our scientific, medical, and cultural language; they invented democracy, atomic theory, and the rules of logic and geometry; laid the foundations of

Alistair Darling's long-awaited book will be one of the most reviewed, widely discussed, and saleable political memoirs of recent years. In the late summer of 2007, shares of Northern Rock went into f

In the early 1870's a nighttime view over Britain would have revealed towns lit by the warm glow of gas and oil lamps and a much darker countryside, the only light emanating from the fiery sparks of l