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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Angelica Malin

Thirty women, from Megan Barton-Hanson and Shaparak Khorsandi to Shon Faye and Stephanie Yeboah write on what single womanhood in the modern age means to them. 
 
 
Have you ever worried about going on holiday alone? 
 
Felt queasy at the thought of Valentine's Day without a date? 
 
Thought to yourself, "I want what she has?" 
 
This book is the tonic you need. 
 
 
ANGELICA MALIN - MEGAN BARTON HANSON - ANNIE LORD - STEPHANIE YEBOAH - SHAPARAK KHORSANDI - POORNA BELL - CHARLIE CRAGGS - REBECCA REID - ASHLEY JAMES - CHANTÉ JOSEPH - ROSIE WILBY - SALMA EL-WARDANY - NATALIE BYRNE - SHON FAYE - VENUS LIBIDO - JESSICA MORGAN - FRANCESCA SPECTER - SHANI SILVER - RACHEL THOMPSON - BELLA DEPAULO - MIA LEVITIN - FELICITY MORSE - KETAKI CHOWKHANI - LUCIE BROWNLEE - CHLOE PIERRE - SOPHIA MONEY-COUTTS - NICOLA SLAWSON - RAHEL AKLILU - SOPHIA LEONIE - ROSE STOKES - MADELEINE SPENCER 
 
Curated by journalist and author Angelica Malin, Unattached explores the nuances of being single today through the voices of thirty women; with personal essays reflecting both the unique challenges (hello, going to a wedding alone), and the glorious benefits (goodbye, joint bank account). 
 
Unattached shines a light on brilliant women stepping into their power, owning being alone, and reveals the true depth of female potential when we choose to go against what society expects of us and revel in our own strength.

Unattached

Empowering Essays on Singlehood

Vee Kativhu

'Dynamic and transformative... a roadmap for following your dreams.' 
Malala Yousafzai 
 
'Touching, deeply inspiring and thought-provoking.' 
Jack Edwards, YouTuber and author of The Uni-Verse: The Ultimate University Survival Guide 
 
 
From experiencing grief and leaving her home country of Zimbabwe for the UK, to attending disruptive state schools and working long hours to support herself and her mother, Vee Kativhu has faced much adversity. 
 
But through personal hardship, she has triumphed, using her experience to help people from all over the world recognise their own talent and achieve their goals. From attaining a bachelor's degree from Oxford and a Master's from Harvard to spreading her message of education, equal access and opportunity and empowerment to a global audience of over 300,000, Vee's incredible journey has inspired young people around the world in need of a boost of confidence, motivation and practical life advice. 
 
In Empowered, Vee draws from her own journey to teach you how to: 
 
- Set your life goals, career aspirations and actually achieve them 
- Stay motivated in the face of rejection and hardship 
- Learn from your mistakes 
- Take chances, live your best life and don't let hardship define you 
- Cultivate feelings of self-love and self-empowerment 
 
This book will inspire you how to live a more fulfilled, motivated and empowered life in everything you do.

Empowered

Live Your Life with Passion and Purpose

Claire Eastham

"An electric, warm, comforting and funny handbook on panic and how to cope and live alongside it. Accessible, reassuring, practical and relieving." Laura Dockrill 
 
"I wish I had this book when I was 18 and having panic attacks. It's smart, witty, informative and importantly, it lets you know that if you have panic attacks too... you are not alone." Dr Sophie Mort 
 
 
An uplifting, personal account on living with panic and how to stop it defining you. 
 
'You're dying. F**k, you're having a heart attack, or is this a stroke? You're going crazy, you are right this second losing your mind. It's game over. Get out' All the work I'd put into preparing for this interview, my job, my career, money, future - it all seemed insignificant next to the burning desire to get out of the room and run. 
 
Award-winning blogger and author of We're All Mad Here, Claire Eastham is an expert on panic. She's not a doctor or an academic, but over a seven-year period, she has experienced 371 panic attacks (and counting), and learnt a thing or two along the way. 
 
Part memoir, part guide, F**k I Think I'm Dying is an intimate, honest and ultimately uplifting exploration into panic attacks. In practical thematic chapters Claire covers the crisis points where panic can hit: job interviews, social situations, attacks at night. She interviews a host of people - scientists, professors, dieticians, psychologists and people who struggle with panic - to anatomise how panic works and how it can be managed. 
 
Frank, funny and blazing, Claire's story will speak to all those seeking to reclaim their power. With a little work and understanding, panic attacks do not have to control you.

F**k, I think I'm Dying

How I Learned to Live With Panic

Philippa Rice

Baby: A Soppy Story is a collection of comics by New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Philippa Rice, based on real-life moments with her baby. 
 
It is a collection about the small, intimate, heart-warming experiences of a couple expecting their first baby. From planning and pregnancy to childbirth and raising a newborn, Baby focuses on the everyday moments of parenthood. 
 
Easily read between naps, it is the perfect gift for new or expectant parents.

Baby

A Soppy Story

Marc Hamer

Longlisted for the Wainwright Book Prize 2019 
 
A calming, life-affirming book about the British countryside, the cycle of nature, solitude and contentment, by a brilliant new nature writer who spent time homeless as a young man, sleeping in the hedgerows he now knows so well. 
 
Although common, moles are mysterious: their habits are inscrutable, they are anatomically bizarre, and they live completely alone. Marc Hamer has come closer to them than most, both through his long working life out in the Welsh countryside, and his experiences of rural homelessness as a boy. 
 
Over the years, Marc has learned a great deal about these small, velvet creatures who live in the dark beneath us, and the myths that surround them, and his work has also led him to a wise and uplifting acceptance of the inevitable changes that we all face. In this beautiful and meditative book, Marc tells his story and explores what moles, and a life in nature, can tell us about our own humanity and our search for contentment. 
 
How to Catch a Mole is a gem of nature writing, beautifully illustrated by Joe McLaren, which celebrates living peacefully and finding wonder in the world around us.

How to Catch a Mole

And Find Yourself in Nature

Dry January

Try Dry can help you feel happier and healthier in 2023. 
 
DID YOU KNOW foregoing our nightly tipple, even just for a few weeks, can lead to a life of: 
 
- Deeper sleep 
- Improved mood 
- Fresher skin 
- More energy 
- Extra cash 
 
Try Dry, with its invaluable resources from the experts at Alcohol Change UK, is your ticket to a hangover-free month and more. So what are you waiting for? Go on. Give Dry January a try. 
 
**Foreword by Lee Mack**

Try Dry

The Official Guide to a Month Off Booze

Miska Rantanen

Russell Howard and Greg Davies discuss Pantsdrunk: 
R: ‘It feels very English to get pissed in your underwear, on your own, and then not go out’ 
G: ‘I’ve been doing it my whole adult life!’ 
R: ‘Do you think it will make us live longer?’ 
G: ‘No. Quite the reverse’ 
R: ‘But it’ll make the time we have on Earth… seem more fun’ 
 
Päntsdrunk is a refreshing take on the personal-development genre. In Finland there is a special word – 'kalsarikänni' – to denote ‘drinking at home, alone, in your underwear’. 
 
It is no coincidence Finland consistently rates in the top five in happiness ranking. In Finland, Päntsdrunk is considered a path to recovery and self-empowerment to help you face your future challenges, much like the 'lagom' or 'hygge' of their other Scandi neighbours. 
 
The Päntsdrunk method also includes bingeing on Netflix, scrolling mindlessly on your phone, sweet and salty snacks, sofa time, and blocking all work communications. It will lead you to a healthier, more energising and relaxing life – wherever, whenever.

Pantsdrunk

The Finnish Art of Drinking at Home. Alone. In Your Underwear.

Yanis Varoufakis

Random House presents the audio edition of Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis, read by Leighton Pugh. 
 
Why is there so much inequality? In this short book, world famous economist Yanis Varoufakis sets out to answer his daughter Xenia’s deceptively simple question. Using personal stories and famous myths – from Oedipus and Faust to Frankenstein and The Matrix – he explains what the economy is and why it has the power to shape our lives. 
 
Intimate yet universally accessible, Talking To My Daughter About the Economy introduces readers to the most important drama of our times, helping to make sense of a troubling world while inspiring us to make it a better one. 
 
‘A provocative, challenging, yet non-patronising analysis of the global economy: what it is, how it came to be and why it can never be apolitical. By using ancient myths, contemporary culture and family stories, Varoufakis makes the text intimate and accessible.’ – Observer 
 
‘Utterly accessible, deeply humane and startlingly original – a potent democratic tool at the perfect time.’ – Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not Enough

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy

A Brief History of Capitalism

Mario Gmurr

Learn something new about yourself today. 
 
What does your workspace say about you? The most revealing clues aren’t on your desk or on your computer. Rather, they’re those paperclips in your bin – the ones you’ve fiddled with, probably without even realising it. 
 
When psychiatrist Mario Gmür started scrutinising paperclips bent by his patients, he found that they actually reveal multitudes about the creator’s character, quirks and hidden desires. Are you an optimist? A pushover? A Lothario? A bully? 
 
After studying the links between paperclip shapes and distinct character types, Gmür has created a delightful collection of quizzes and psychological profiles that allow readers to discover their innermost truths using these miniature metallic sculptures. 
 
Part Rorschach test and part humorous horoscope, The Paperclip Test offers an amusing yet astonishingly insightful personality gauge for anyone who has ever bent a paperclip without thinking about what secrets that tiny shape might hold.

The Paperclip Test

Anna Pallai

'Spaghetti in aspic, anyone? Revel in astonishing dishes from yesteryear: Stuffed Cocktail Grapes, Savoury Sausage Salad, a spunky Shrimp-Salmon Mould and so much more. 
 
Anna Pallai was brought up on 1970s stalwarts of stuffed peppers, meatloaf and platters of slightly greying hardboiled eggs. When she rediscovered her mother's grease-stained 70s cookbooks, she knew she needed to share them with the world, and so the hit Twitter account @70s_Party was born. 
 
Harking back to a simpler pre-Instagram, pre-clean-eating era, when the only concern for your dinner party was whether your aspic would set in time, this is a joyful celebration of food that can give you gout just by looking at it. Covering all the essentials, from starters through to desserts, dinner party etiquette (just how does one start to eat a swan fashioned from a hardboiled egg?) and the dreaded 'foreign' food, there's no potato-fashioned-as-a-stone left unturned.

70s Dinner Party

The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly of Retro Food

Kit Caless

A brilliantly quirky and affectionate look at a British institution: Wetherspoon Pubs and their incredible carpets. 
 
 If you’ve ever been in a Wetherspoon's (and who hasn't), you’ve probably looked down and noticed the brilliantly-hued carpet beneath your feet. But that carpet isn’t just for disguising spilt drinks… Each Wetherspoon has a carpet that is unique and bespoke, with a design inspired by the history of the building, its locale or the name of the pub. 
 
Thanks to the hit blog 'Wetherspoon's Carpets' – which posed the important question 'are any two Wetherspoon carpets the same?’ – these tapestried hymns to British boozers have become a cultural sensation. Now, Kit Caless has travelled the length and breadth of the UK, from Berkshire to Renfrewshire, Bradford to Bridgend, to photograph over 70 splendid carpets from Wetherspoons and meet some of the pubs' regulars. Each entry appears in all its glorious colour, along with Caless's witty and informative text on the inspiration for each carpet's design, the history of the pub and key facts about the branch and its regulars. 
 
Will your Spoons be there?

Spoon's Carpets

An Appreciation

Desmond Morris

What is it about the canine personality which has singled this animal out from all the 4,236 species of non-human mammals to be man’s closest companion? Strangely enough, all dogs, from scruffy mongrels to haughty show champs, are members of the same species – that of the wolf. In Dogwatching, zoologist Desmond Morris gives answers to fascinating fundamental questions about our canine companions – questions so often overlooked by standard dog books, which concentrate on grooming, feeding and veterinary care. It is a book for dog-lovers everywhere, one which will lead to an even deeper bond of understanding and an insight into such remarkable and delightful creatures. 
 
Why do dogs bark? 
Why does a frightened dog put its tail between its legs? 
Why do puppies chew slippers? 
Why does a dog bury a bone? 
Why does a Pointer point? 
Why do we cure a hangover with the ‘hair of the dog’? 
Do dogs have a sixth sense? 
Why do some dogs chase their own tails?

Dogwatching

The Essential Guide to Dog Behaviour

Milton Crawford

Discover the perfect cookbook to make lockdown Valentine's day special. 
 
This book offers a unique culinary slant on dinner à deux with fun and adventurous recipes that will help love to blossom, tease palates and arouse the senses... and make all the difference between a firecracker of an evening and a damp squib: 
 
Something to Slurp on - get the juices flowing with a Basil Martini or a Bloody Mary with Clam Juice 
 
Nibbles and Tit-bits - get down to some fun foreplay with Spiced Honey Almonds or Caviar Blini 
 
Shapely Veg - get forking Asparagus with White Crab Meat or Pommes Sarladaises with Truffles 
 
Smooth and Slippery - serve Milton's Moules or Salmon Tikka Skewers with Dill and Pomegranate Raita for a boost in the bedroom 
 
Flesh - wrap your mouth around Pot-roast Haunch of Venison and Beef Fillet, Ceps and Marsala Sauce 
 
The Spice of Life - get hot and spicy with Saffron Roast Chicken or Paneer Chilli 
 
Getting Fruity - with Pineapple and Pork Curry or Poached Quince with Mascarpone and Gorgonzola Cream 
 
Sweet Bits - down and dirty desserts, from Chocolate Chilli Fondant to Raspberry Rose Puddin' 
 
Read on and let Milton Crawford share his secret potions of love. 
 
'Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all' Harriet van Horne

The Lover's Cookbook

James Andrews

William Shakespeare, dad of three, knew a few things about parenting. The ideal gift for new parents, grandparents, parents-to-be... 
 
 Shakespeare's Guide to Parenting is the perfect pick-me-up for every parent or parent to be, helping mums and dads know exactly what to say, in every parenting eventuality. 
 
Sometimes, being a parent can leave you lost for words. So, who other to turn to than father of three William Shakespeare for the perfect response to all these parenting dilemmas, and more. This witty and erudite guide is a handy collection of wisdom, cunningly extracted from Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, and hilariously illustrated by James Andrews. From King Lear to Cleopatra, from Lady Macbeth to Juliet: Shakespeare proves, once again, that he is (as he said himself!) the font of all wisdom, including raising children.

Shakespeare's Guide to Parenting

Sarah Thompson

With a foreword by Wayne Hemingway MBE and an introduction by Catherine Croft, director of the Twentieth Century Society, Style Council brings together an inspirational and eclectic selection of interiors from a generation of homeowners who are redefining the status of local-authority architecture. 
 
From covetable apartments in hip Brutalist high-rises to rural cottages with roses around the door, Style Council peeks behind the curtains of the often unappreciated former council home, into the lives of the creative and resourceful people who live there. The homes featured are unique, yet bound by an upcycling ethos, an innate sense of style and the triumph of dash over cash. 
 
Style Council is an essential sourcebook and a goody-bag of ideas for anyone wanting to do up their home – ex-council or not – in style. 
 
The book features 15 homes across the UK, with full-colour interior photography by Sarah Cuttle.

Style Council

Inspirational Interiors in Ex-Council Homes

Sofka Zinovieff

Faringdon House in Oxfordshire was the home of Lord Berners, composer, writer, painter, friend of Stravinsky and Gertrude Stein, a man renowned for his eccentricity – masks, practical jokes, a flock of multi-coloured doves – and his homosexuality. Before the war he made Faringdon an aesthete’s paradise, where exquisite food was served to many of the great minds, beauties and wits of the day. 
 
Since the early thirties his companion there was Robert Heber-Percy, twenty-eight years his junior, wildly physical, unscholarly, a hothead who rode naked through the grounds, loved cocktails and nightclubs, and was known to all as the Mad Boy. If the two men made an unlikely couple, at a time when homosexuality was illegal, the addition to the household in 1942 of a pregnant Jennifer Fry, a high society girl known to be ‘fast’, as Robert’s wife was simply astounding. 
 
After Victoria was born the marriage soon foundered (Jennifer later married Alan Ross). Berners died in 1950, leaving Robert in charge of Faringdon, aided by a ferocious Austrian housekeeper who strove to keep the same culinary standards in a more austere age. This was the world Sofka Zinovieff, Victoria’s daughter, a typical child of the sixties, first encountered at the age of seventeen. Eight years later, to her astonishment, Robert told her he was leaving her Faringdon House. 
 
Her book about Faringdon and its people is marvellously witty and full of insight, bringing to life a vanished world and the almost fantastical people who lived in it.

The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother And Me

Peter France

Ours is an age where solitude tends to be discussed in the context of the 'problem of loneliness'. However in previous ages the capacity to seek fulfillment outside society has been admired and seen as a measure of discernment and inner security. In this lucid and highly readable book, Peter France shows how hermits, from the Taoists and Ancient Greeks to the present day, have something vitally important to say to a society that fears solitude.

Hermits

The Insights of Solitude

Alexandra Zelman-Doring

What is it like to have someone die in your arms? Can we return from the dead? And why has nobody heard of therapeutic hypothermia? 
 
Forced to come to terms with doctors pronouncing her husband ‘clinically dead’, Alexandra Zelman-Doring embarks on an exploration of what death means to us and how we might face it. Initally she is overwhelmed by the difficulty of accepting the loss of a loved one, and the anger, sadness and sense of isolation that it brings. But her suffering pushes her towards a life-store of reading, and here she finds words with which to contemplate death; from Turgenev on death as an ‘unanswerable reproach’ to Norbert Elias on the extraordinary collective will to endure it. 
 
Equally inspiring are the true stories of unlikely survivors: from a species of frog whose organs stop, frozen, throughout the winter, only to stir back to life in the spring, to Anna Bagenholm whose iced brain and body held out against all odds after a fatal accident. These incidents inform a development in medical science where cardiac arrest is treated with ‘therapeutic hypothermia’, in some cases allowing the body to last without oxygen just long enough for doctors to return the near-dead to life.

A Community of Mortals

Gareth May

This manual for the modern man is a brilliantly witty, honest and down-to-earth guide, which tells you all the things your best friend can't. 
 
Drawing on centuries of male wisdom, it covers every conceivable situation, including: 
- How to hit a bullseye in darts 
- Know your beef 
- What to look for in a second hand car 
- Essential DIY tips 
- How to organise a stag do 
- How to give yourself a number one cut 
 
The perfect gift for any man who has ever struggled to tie a perfect tie or fix a U-bend.

100 Things Every Man Should Know

Margarita Woodley

Crafting has never been more popular and Maggy Woodley, the creative force behind Red Ted, is passionate about making things with her children, Max, four, and Pippa, two. 
 
Using recycled materials and bits and bobs collected when out and about, here are over 60 utterly irresistible things to make with your kids. From adorable peanut shell finger puppets to walnut babies, loo roll marionettes and egg carton fairy lights, fabric mache bowls, stick men and shell crabs, stone people, and many more, these are projects for all the family to have fun with. And what's more, the end results are so cute and desirable that they look great around the home, or make wonderfully unique and personal gifts. 
 
With a funky, modern design and vibrant full colour photography throughout, this is a must-have addition to every young family's bookshelf.

Red Ted Art

Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids

Tom Hickman

Throughout history man has revered his penis as his 'most precious ornament'. 
 
Yet, ambivalently, his penis has always been the source of man's deepest neuroses too. Do women find it, in the erect state, inherently ridiculous? Why can't a man be certain his penis will stand and deliver when he commands? If and when it steadfastly refuses, what can he do to remedy the situation? And then, of course, there's the matter of size... 
 
To possess a penis, Sophocles said, is to be 'chained to a madman'. God's Doodle examines the schizophrenic relationship between man and this madman - and the joint relationship this odd couple has with the female sex. 
 
God's Doodle is the tale of the penis and the ups and downs of history - the macabre and the bloodcurdling, the funny and the sad, distilled from myth, world cultures, religion, literature, science, medicine and contemporary life - all told with mordant wit.

God's Doodle

The Life and Times of the Penis

Nicholas Albery

'It is better to give than to receive - especially advice.' MARK TWAIN. This book offers 366 tips - some in their own words, some favourite quotations; some maxims of every day life; some pithy, some profound, some philosophical. From poets to philosophers, from psychologists to Members of Parliament, from businessmen to novelists, the range of contributors cuts a wide swathe across all age-groups, professions, political affilitations and social backgrounds. Their chosen tips will make us laugh or shudder, will have resonance or private meaning, and will widen our realms of experience as they tap into favourite dreams, obsessions, aspirations or jokes. Anita Roddick, of the Body Shop, writes in her introduction: "I believe that most of us will find here at least one or two of what the poet William Blake called 'minute particulars', the small and useful details that can make a difference to a person's quality of life."

Seize The Day

366 Tips for Living

Bill Clegg

The goal is ninety: just ninety clean and sober days to loosen the hold of the addiction that caused Bill Clegg to lose everything. With seventy-three days in rehab behind him he returns to New York and attends two or three meetings each day. It is in these refuges that he befriends essential allies including the seemingly unshakably sober Asa, and Polly, who struggles daily with her own cycle of recovery and relapse. 
 
At first, the support is not enough: Clegg relapses for the first time with only three days left, turning his calendar back to day one. Written with uncompromised immediacy, Ninety Days begins where Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man ends - and tells the wrenching story of Bill Clegg's battle to reclaim his life. As any recovering addict knows, hitting rock bottom is just the beginning.

Ninety Days

David Lodge

When the university merged his Department of Linguistics with English, Professor Desmond Bates took early retirement, but he is not enjoying it. He misses the purposeful routine of the academic year, and has lost his appetite for research. 
 
His wife Winifred's late-flowering career goes from strength to strength, reducing his role to that of escort and househusband, while the rejuvenation of her appearance makes him uneasily conscious of the age gap between them. The monotony of his days is relieved only by wearisome journeys to London to check on the welfare of his eighty-nine-year-old father, an ex dance musician who stubbornly refuses to move from the house he is patently unable to live in with safety. 
 
But these discontents are nothing compared to the affliction of hearing loss, which is a constant source of domestic friction and social embarrassment. In the popular imagination, he observes, deafness is comic, as blindness is tragic, but for the deaf person himself it is no joke. It is through his deafness that Desmond inadvertently gets involved with a young woman whose wayward and unpredictable behaviour threatens to destabilise his life completely. 
 
Funny and moving by turns, Deaf Sentence is a brilliant account of one man's effort to come to terms with deafness and death, ageing and mortality, the comedy and tragedy of human lives.

Deaf Sentence

Neil Roberts

Peter Redgrove

The work of the poet Peter Redgrove is one of the great unexplored treasures of late twentieth century literature. His prolific output presents an intriguing variety of personae: magician, scientist, lover, psychologist, joker, madman. It is only now, with the publication of his Collected Poems and this biography, that we can see how and why these personae developed - and discover the full depth and range of this visionary writer. 
 
Born into an apparently conventional middle-class family that was in reality deeply disturbed, the poet finally emerged: transforming himself from the neurotic, Oedipal young scientist, through a process of mental breakdown, insulin coma therapy, erotic revelation and the discovery of poetic companionship at Cambridge - and particularly his friendship and rivalry with Ted Hughes. 
 
Neil Roberts explores the inner story of this emergence, and Redgrove's later development through marriage, family life, the fellowship of the 'Group', alcoholic excess, infidelity and marital breakdown to his triumphant later partnership with Penelope Shuttle. We also discover, for the first time, some darker secrets: his fascination with Aleister Crowley, his damaged and damaging relationship with his father, and the lifelong sexual fetish which he called the 'Game'. Drawing on the poet's intimate journals and correspondence, and interviews with family, friends and colleagues, A Lucid Dreamer tells the exceptionally inward and revealing story of an astonishing creative life.

A Lucid Dreamer

The Life of Peter Redgrove

Elizabeth McCracken

'This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending.' 
 
A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, Elizabeth McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. Then she fell in love, got married, and continued her life of writing, travelling, and teaching with her husband.Two years ago, she found herself in a remote part of France, waiting for the birth of her first child. 
 
This book is about what happens next. In the ninth month of her pregnancy, a baby is lost.Just over a year later, a baby is born. In a profoundly moving display of humour, heart, and unfailing generosity, McCracken tenderly presents her story: a story of true love and unfathomable sadness, of courageous recovery and bittersweet moments, of steadfast memories and deep affection.Grief walks through these pages of this remarkable book, but so do happiness and hope.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination

Nigella Lawson

Compendious, informative and engaging, Kitchen offers feel-good food for cooks and eaters that is comforting but always seductive, nostalgic but with a modern twist - whether express-way easy-exotic recipes for the weekday rush, leisurely slow-cook dishes for weekends and special occasions, or irresistible cakes and cookies in true "domestic goddess" style. It answers everyday cooking quandaries - what to give the kids for tea, how to rustle up a meal for friends or an impromptu kitchen party in moments, or what to do about those black bananas, wrinkled apples and bullet-hard plums - and since real cooking is so often about leftovers, here one recipe can morph into another...from ham hocks to pea soup and pasties, from braised chicken to Chinatown salad. This isn't just about being thrifty but about being creative and seeing how recipes evolve. 
 
As well as offering the reader a mouthwatering array of inspired new recipes - from clams with chorizo to Guinness gingerbread, from Asian braised beef to flourless chocolate lime cake, from Pasta ala Genovese to Venetian carrot cake - Nigella rounds up her kitchen kit must-haves (and, crucially, what isn't needed) in the way of equipment and magical standby ingredients. But above all, she reminds the reader how much pleasure there is to be had in real food and in reclaiming the traditional rhythms of the kitchen, as she cooks to the beat of the heart of the home, creating simple, delicious recipes to make life less complicated. 
 
The expansive, lively narrative, with its rich feast of food, makes this new work a natural 21st-century successor to Nigella's classic How To Eat, this time with a wealth of photographs from the instructive to the glorious, and accompanied by a BBC TV series. 
 
190 recipes, including over 60 express-style at 30 minutes or under.

Kitchen

Recipes from the Heart of the Home

Ian Robertson

A simple and fun mind workout that will give you the mental sharpness of someone 10 years younger. 
 
New research in neuroscience - the study of mind-brain function - has proved that, just as physical health and fitness can be transformed by diet and exercise, so your brain can be tuned to maximum sharpness. It is also possible to avoid, and even reverse, the effects of mental aging. Key discoveries include: 
 
-Exercise actually grows your brain and improves your memory 
-The foods and vitamins that make you sharper 
-Use your brain if you don't want to lose it 
-Unstress your brain - it doesn't like it

Stay Sharp With The Mind Doctor

Practical Strategies to Boost Your Brain Power

Jo Hanks

Mark Hanks

How to you save a curdled custard? 
How do you keep mice out of the home? 
How do you stop moths eating your woollens? 
How do you get chewing gum out of a five-year-old's hair? 
Or get rid of his veruccas? 
And cure hiccoughs in a trice? 
 
 
The answers to all these every day dilemmas, and many, many more, are at hand in this nifty little encyclopaedia of essential things every mum needs to know.

Mum Knows Best

Joanna Simmons

Jay Curtis

This brilliantly alternative A - Z of parenting is essential reading for all mums and dads who 'really love their kids, but...' 
 
 A is for Anxiety, Alcohol and awful Activities. 
 
B is for Bedtime, Baking and Boredom. 
 
C is for Childcare and Cooking With Your Coat on. 
 
The Aargh to Zzzz of Parenting puts two fingers up to the idea that motherhood is the most rewarding experience a woman can have. Taking a laugh-out-loud look at life with young children, it taps into the very normal, but hard-to-admit frustrations that many parents feel.

The Aargh to Zzzz of Parenting

An Alternative Guide

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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