Set against the background of violence and state repression in a turbulent period of French history, this book chronicles the incredible and outrageous life of Louise Michel, the revolutionary feminis
"21st-century genius". (Elle). A howling wind, a thunderstorm, the beating sun - it's with the elements that nature shows its true force and wonder. In Thunder and Lightning, Guggenheim fellow and Pul
An enlightening history of the Anglo-American alliance in the Second World War, from high command down to the soldiers on the ground.In the mid-twentieth century the relationship between America and B
John, Susan, Titty and Roger sail their boat, Swallow, to a deserted island for a summer camping trip. Exploring and playing sailors is an adventure in itself but the island holds more excitement in s
In these short stories it's the ordinary things that turn out to be most extraordinary: the history of a length of fabric, say, and a forgotten jacket. Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a ne
The poor old Amazons become Martyrs and the Ds Picts living in the woods, in Arthur Ransome's 11th adventure.The Ds can't wait to go and stay with Nancy and Peggy in the Lake District during the summe
Your parents are British. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British. It is about the everyday racism that plagues British society. In this personal and provocative investigation
'The next Bill Bryson' (New York Times) explores international relations past and present between three East Asian countries – Japan, South Korea and China – in this lively, absorbing travelogue‘Two t
From Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our time, comes a spellbinding work of fiction that blends history, mythology, and a timeless love story. A lush, richly layered novel in which our wor
When this second volume of The Life of Saul Bellow opens, Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters – rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline:
On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot high tsunami smashing into the coast of north-east Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than 18,000 people had been crushed, burned to deat
Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A. O. Scott shows in Better Living Through Criticism is that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almo
Deep in a wood in a valley in the Marches of Wales, by an abandoned railway line, there lives an old man called Bob Rowberry. His home is an ancient school bus whose engine has died and whose wheels h
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been close friends since they first met in their twenties. Thirty years later Alex and Christine are spending a leisure
A timeless classic, beautifully rejacketed. BACKSTORY: Test your knowledge of the book and its characters, and learn more about water dowsing!Reunited for the summer, the Swallows and Amazons with Dic
'You know what it's like. Dark at teatime and sleeping indoors: nothing ever happens in the winter holidays.'Or so Nancy thinks. Then the lake ices over completely and the Swallows and Amazons, along
Early one morning the little train wakes up in his home town, Little Snoreing, and decides to go on an adventure. He chugs and puffs his way through villages, past castles and over bridges. But soon h
Cleveland, Ohio, 2003. A young man is just a college freshman when he meets Emily. They share a passion for Edward Albee and ecstasy and fall hard and fast in love. But soon Emily has to move home to
‘A modern gothic triumph. Spectacularly well-observed, profoundly disquieting and utterly riveting. Like all Evie Wyld's work it is startlingly insightful about psychological and physical abuse. It is
An impassioned defence of global immigration from the acclaimed author of Maximum City.Drawing on his family’s own experience emigrating from India to Britain and America, and years of reporting aroun
When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, taking 'Roman' names, and move into a grand
Otherworldly, provocative, and strange, Audrey Niffenegger's art is a vital a part of her vision as her best-selling novels The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry. Awake in the Dream World
Cecil Beaton's sense of style and his much-celebrated career as a designer for film and stage have overshadowed his position as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. Beaton's person
In a tour-de-force that is both an homage to an immortal work of literature and a modern masterpiece about the quest for love and family, Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salma
Why do we no longer trust experts, facts and statistics? Why has politics become so fractious and warlike? What caused the populist political upheavals of recent years? How can the history of ideas he
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet.
Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less?First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul doesn't know anything about that at nineteen.As he grows older
Goethe claimed to know what light was. Galileo and Einstein both confessed they didn't. On the essential nature of light, and how it operates, the scientific jury is still out. There is still time, th
2015 Man Booker Prize longlist A darkly glinting novel set on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, The Green Road is a story of fracture and family, selfishness and compassion – a book about the gaps in the hum
** BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week ** You start with a vision, and you deliver a compromise. You want a play to be challenging, ambitious, nuanced and complicated. You also want it to sell tickets. You w
Hubert is a solitary man who shapes his life by going to museums. He talks to few people and only about museums and art. When his neighbour downstairs, a lonely woman, tries to seduce him, he doesn't
Why do they call him Black Jake? Is it because of his hair?' Titty asked.'Because of his heart' said Peter Duck.The Swallows and Amazons, as well as Captain Flint and the ancient able seaman Peter Duc
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 MAN BOOKER PRIZE A good man in a bad world, Jon Sigurdsson is 59 and divorced: a senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his colleagues and loathes his work for a
A gift that will bring cries of delighted recognition from anyone who has ever owned a dog and, dare one say it, charm the pants off even those who strongly prefer cats. Hello. My name is Plum and I’m
In July 1961, just before David Aaronovitch's seventh birthday, Yuri Gagarin came to London. The Russian cosmonaut was everything the Aaronovitch family wished for - a popular and handsome embodiment
"There is something reassuring yet deliciously unexpected about a Tessa Hadley novel." (Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph). Over five novels and two collections of stories Tessa Hadley has earned a reputat
For nearly twenty years David Dawson was Lucian Freud's assistant, companion and model. Freud was famously private. He carefully avoided distraction. With few exceptions, he only wanted those he knew
Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home - a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse - but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and
2015 Man Booker Prize longlist Meet U. – a talented and uneasy figure currently pimping his skills to an elite consultancy in contemporary London. His employers advise everyone from big businesses to
Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge, presiding over cases in the family court. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private
