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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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Becky Barnicoat

'The most accurate account of becoming a parent I have ever read.' PHILIPPA PERRY 
 
‘So clever, so funny, so astute, so healing. Becky Barnicoat is a stone cold genius.' LUCY JONES 
 
A glorious antidote to parenting books, this darkly humorous, candid and insightful graphic memoir brings the early years of parenthood to life – in all their chaos, wonder and delirium. 
 
Intimate, relatable and very funny, Becky Barnicoat explores everything from the anatomy of the hospital bag to the frantic obsession with putting your baby down drowsy but awake, to the tyranny of gentle parenting. From pregnancy to the feral toddler years, Barnicoat extends a sticky hand to all new parents grappling with the impossible but joyous jigsaw puzzle of their lives. 
 
Barnicoat gives us permission to cry when the baby cries – and also laugh, snort, lie on the floor naked, drool and generally revel in a deeply strange new world ruled by a tyrannical tiny leader, growing bigger and more loved by the day. 
 
 
'Tender, moving, beautifully drawn and also, extremely hilarious.' ISABEL GREENBERG 
 
'It made me laugh, weep, cheer and howl... essential reading for parents and their peers.' NELL FRIZZELL

Cry When the Baby Cries

Sarah Perry

'Please read this book. It may very well change how you live' Rachel Clarke 
 
'I was spellbound' Kathryn Mannix 
 
This is not a book about grief: it is a book about dying, and it is a book about family, and care and love. 
 
Sarah Perry's father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. Until then he'd been a healthy and happy man: he loved stamp collecting, fish and chips, comic novels, his local church, and the Antiques Roadshow. He was in some ways a very ordinary man, but as he began to die, it became clear how extraordinary he was. 
 
Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David themselves at home, eventually with the help of carers and visiting nurses. They bathed and cleaned and dressed him, comforted him in pain, sat with him through waking and sleeping, talked to him, sang to him, prayed with him. Day by day and hour by hour, they witnessed what happens to the body and spirit as death approaches and finally arrives. 
 
'Beautiful and profound and completely gripping' Mark Haddon 
 
'We cannot be but somewhat changed by this remarkable book' Daily Telegraph 
 
'By the end I was left shaken, deeply moved' Christos Tsiolkas 
 
'This book will be a lifeline for so many people' Seán Hewitt 
 
'Sarah is in a league of her own as a writer - I don't know how she does it' Sara Collins

Death of an Ordinary Man

John Burnside

John Burnside recalls the failed relationship with his father, in the first of his trilogy of exquisite memoirs 
 
With a new introduction by Megan Nolan 
 
‘A master of language’ Hilary Mantel 
 
He had his final heart attack in the Silver Band Club in Corby, somewhere between the bar and the cigarette machine. A foundling; a fantasist; a morose, threatening drinker who was quick with his hands, he hadn’t seen his son for years. 
 
John Burnside’s extraordinary story of this failed relationship is a beautifully written evocation of a lost and damaged world of childhood and the constants of his father’s world: men defined by the drink they could take and the pain they could stand, men shaped by their guilt and machismo. 
 
A Lie About My Father is about forgiving but not forgetting, about examining the way men are made and how they fall apart, and about understanding that in order to have a good son you must have a good father. 
 
‘Memoir this good illuminates something larger than itself. It is an exercise in understanding, compassion and forgiveness’ Sunday Telegraph 
 
Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year

A Lie About My Father

Dani Shapiro

The New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance delivers her most intimate and powerful work: a piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, sorrow and love. 
 
Hourglass is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time - abraded, strengthened, shaped in miraculous and sometimes terrifying ways by accident and experience. With courage and relentless honesty, Dani Shapiro opens the door to her house, her marriage, and her heart, and invites us to witness her own marital reckoning - a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made, and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become. 
 
What are the forces that shape our most elemental bonds? How do we make lifelong commitments in the face of identities that are continuously shifting, and commit ourselves for all time when the self is so often in flux? What happens to love in the face of the unexpected, in the face of disappointment and compromise - how do we wrest beauty from imperfection, find grace in the ordinary, desire what we have rather than what we lack? 
 
Drawing on literature, poetry, philosophy, and theology, Shapiro writes gloriously of the joys and challenges of matrimonial life, in a luminous narrative that unfurls with urgent immediacy and sharp intelligence. Artful, intensely emotional work from one of our finest writers. 
 
‘A beautiful book by a writer of rare talent’ Cheryl Strayed

Hourglass

Time, Memory, Marriage

Kerry Hudson

‘I've just literally devoured Newborn and absolutely loved it’ Giovanna Fletcher, Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast 
 
The new memoir from Kerry Hudson about her struggle to build a safe, loving home for her baby – the very opposite of the home she grew up in... 
 
‘Absorbing’ Irish Times 
‘Filled with colour’ Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun 
‘A rallying cry’ Herald 
 
How do you build a family without a blueprint to work from? 
 
Kerry Hudson grew up in poverty. Always on the move, shuttled between the care system and her chaotic mother, she left school at 15 without qualifications. Now a prize-winning writer, she looks back and asks: how do you create a different life for yourself and your family? 
 
In Newborn we see how Kerry found love, what it took to decide to start a family of her own and how fragile every step of the journey towards parenthood was. All along the way, she faces obstacles that would test the strongest foundations, from struggles with fertility to being locked down in a Prague maternity hospital to a marriage in crisis. But over and over again, her love, hope, fight – and determination to break patterns and give her son a different life – win through and light her path. 
 
PRAISE FOR KERRY HUDSON: 
 
‘It’s not just Kerry Hudson’s writing that is vibrant, authentic and true, it’s the person herself, it’s where the writing comes from; a wise and generous heart’ KIT DE WAAL 
 
'Hudson’s resilience, grace and humility are staggering. She’s an absolute inspiration’ DOUGLAS STUART 
 
‘Kerry Hudson blew me away, opened my eyes’ PHILIPPA PERRY

Newborn

Running Away, Breaking with the Past, Building a New Family

Amy Key

Is it possible life without romantic love isn't so bad? 
 
An essential memoir about building life on your own terms 
 
***A SUNDAY TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023*** 
 
'The book I've been waiting for my entire life' 
DOLLY ALDERTON, author of Everything I Know About Love 
 
'Marks an important shift in ideas about intimacy' 
OBSERVER 
 
'The harbinger of real talent' 
SUNDAY TIMES 
 
When poet Amy Key was growing up, she looked forward to a life shaped by romance, fuelled by desire, longing and the conventional markers of success that come when you share a life with another person. But that didn't happen for her. Now in her forties, she sets out to explore the realities of a life lived in the absence of romantic love. 
 
Using Joni Mitchell's seminal album Blue - which shaped Key's expectations of love - as an anchor, Arrangements in Blue elegantly honours a life lived completely by, and for, oneself. Building a home, travelling alone, choosing whether to be a mother, recognising her own milestones, learning the limits of self-care and the expansive potential of self-friendship, Key uncovers the many forms of connection and care that often go unnoticed. 
 
With profound candour and intimacy, Arrangements in Blue explores the painful feelings we are usually too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief and failure. The result is a book which inspires us to live and love more honestly.

Arrangements in Blue

Notes on Love and Making a Life

Rachel Hewitt

'Heartfelt, passionate, infuriating and often devastating, this book will inspire you to fight for your right to tread your own path' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, author of Invisible Women 
 
When Rachel loses five family members in five months, grief magnifies other absences. Running across moors and mountains used to help her feel at home in her body but now feels fraught with danger. 
 
Rachel goes in search of a new family: the foremothers who blazed a trail at the dawn of outdoor sport. She discovers Lizzie Le Blond who scaled the Alps in woollen skirts and photographed fearless women climbing, skating and tobogganing at breakneck speeds. Telling Lizzie's story alongside her own, Rachel runs her way from bereavement to belonging, inspired by the tenacious women, past and present, who insist that breaking boundaries outdoors is, and always has been, in her nature. 
 
‘A book of limitless curiosity and eloquent passion’ The Times

In Her Nature

How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors

Antoine Leiris

'A beacon of hope in a dark world' Cathy Rentzenbrink, on international bestseller You Will Not Have My Hate 
 
A moving account of single fatherhood in the wake of bereavement. 
 
When Antoine Leiris lost his wife, Hélène, in a terrorist attack in Paris, he was left to care for their baby alone. In this wry and honest book Antoine talks about how they have both fared since that terrible day. 
 
Grief is a succession of transformations. Four years later, I am no longer the same man. The same is true for Melvil. He isn't a baby anymore, but a happy little boy. 
 
Life, After follows a single father learning how to create a happy home for his son. From imagining the reviews he might receive as a parent, to dealing with the complicated emotions that arise around a new relationship and talking to children about bereavement, Antoine charts the course of their life together with remarkable humour and self-awareness. 
 
At times heartbreaking and at times vibrating with the joy of the companionship of a lively little boy, Life, After finds a way to answer the question 'How can I go on?' 
 
That is when it begins. Life, after.

Life, After

Richard Askwith

'Inspirational' - Observer 
 
A transformational quest for the secrets of happy, healthy, whole-life running that will change the way you think about growing older. 
 
Colourful, informative and inspiring, The Race Against Time is a story of cold science and heart-warming resilience; of champions and also-rans; of sprinting centenarians and forty-something super-athletes barely touched by age. Its heroes are experts and enthusiasts - scientists, coaches, runners - from many countries, each with a different story to tell. 
 
This is a book for anyone who has ever felt the healing power of running &ndash; or simply wondered about the effects of ageing. It is both a very personal account of one man's journey from despair to hope, and an exhilarating guide, explaining how timely adjustments to lifestyle and training can slow the progress of physiological decay, while sheer human spirit can, if you are lucky, keep you running happily and healthily, all the way into extreme old age.

The Race Against Time

Adventures in Late-Life Running

Shilpa Ravella

Inflammation has traditionally been thought of as the body's response to injury and foreign microbes. But as the threats we face have evolved, what if it were now the root cause of modern disease? 
 
New science has revealed low-level, smoldering inflammation, simmering quietly and undetected, behind everything from heart disease and cancer to mysterious autoimmune conditions. Hidden inflammation even weakens our immunity and increases the likelihood that our immune system will mount an overwhelming, inappropriate attack against infections. 
 
In this beautifully written story of scientific discovery by a doctor at the forefront of this field, A Silent Fire brings together the science of immunology, nutrition and the microbiome, interwoven with fascinating case studies, to explain what we know of this elusive phenomenon, offering insights into how we can live not only long but well.

A Silent Fire

The Story of Inflammation, Diet and Disease

Siddhartha Mukherjee

**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2023** 
 
A NEW YORK TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, ECONOMIST, MAIL ON SUNDAY and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
From the dawn of life itself, every being that has ever lived owes its existence to the cell. 
 
'Will leave you in awe' Guardian 
 
The discovery of this vital form led to a transformation in medicine but also in our understanding of ourselves - not as bodies or machines but as ecosystems. It has also given us the power to treat a vast array of mortal maladies...and even to create new kinds of human altogether. 
 
Rich with stories of scientists, doctors and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is a stunning ode to the building blocks of life and the cutting-edge science harnessing their power for the better. 
 
'Profound...As big a topic as life itself' The Times 
 
'Medical magic' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Vast...important...optimistic' Mail on Sunday

The Song of the Cell

The Story of Life

An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

Édouard Louis

Édouard Louis is one of the most important literary voices of his generation' Guardian 
 
One day, Édouard Louis finds a photograph of his mother from twenty years ago: a happy young woman, full of hopes and dreams. But growing up, Édouard only knew his mother's sadness - what happened in those years since the photo was taken? Then, at the age of forty-five, Édouard's mother frees herself from this oppression, to start a new life in Paris. 
 
A Woman's Battles and Transformations reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives - and with the possibility of escape. It is a tender portrait of a mother, and an honouring of her self-discovery as she chooses to live on her own terms. 
 
 
'Tash Aw's sensitive translation captures the vividness of Louis's voice... Movingly, the book demonstrates the pain that moving from one social class to another entails' Times Literary Supplement 
 
'A tenderness of observation' New York Times 
 
'Incandescent...Louis's most hopeful book to date' Los Angeles Times 
 
Translated from the French by Tash Aw

A Woman’s Battles and Transformations

Ibram X. Kendi

How do we talk to our children about racism? 
 
How do we teach children to be antiracist? How are kids at different ages experiencing race? How are racist structures impacting children? How can we inspire our children to avoid our mistakes, to be better, to make the world better? 
 
These are the questions Ibram X. Kendi found himself avoiding as he anticipated the birth of his first child. Like most parents or parents-to-be, he felt the reflex to not talk to his child about racism, which he feared would stain her innocence and steal away her joy. But research into the scientific literature, his experiences as a father and reflections on his own difficult experiences as a student ultimately changed his mind. 
 
In How to Raise an Antiracist Kendi shows that we must all participate in the effort to raise young people as antiracists.

How To Raise an Antiracist

Christie Watson

A frank, funny and inspiring new memoir from the bestselling author of The Language of Kindness about the search for meaning in midlife 
 
'An insightful and outspoken exploration of middle age and the perimenopause' Observer 
 
Am I a terrible mother? Is the world ending? Did I turn the oven off? Did I pay the parking fine? Is my TV licence up to date? Will I go to prison? Who will take care of the children? 
 
This is the story of Christie Watson's journey through midlife. The joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent. It lays bare the exhilaration, agony, wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges. And as her world takes on a different shape, there's something else she starts to feel: the hot flush of possibility... 
 
'A superb chronicle of midlife and the chaos of the perimenopause. Candid, humorous, insightful, deeply empathetic, inspiring and utterly necessary' i Paper 
 
'Brilliant... Like having an honest conversation with a smart and funny friend' Cathy Rentzenbrink 
 
'I adore Christie Watson. Quilt on Fire is full of her trademark candour, compassion and humour' Elizabeth Day 
 
'You don't have to be in midlife to appreciate this funny, real, empathetic memoir about the multitudes contained in every woman' Red

Quilt on Fire

The Messy Magic of Friends, Sex & Love

Daniel M Davis

'Thrilling' BILL BRYSON 
'Brilliant' TIM SPECTOR 
'Extraordinary' ALICE ROBERTS 
 
Welcome to a revolution in the science of you - this is the landmark new book from award-winning scientist Daniel M. Davis. 
 
Imagine taking drugs to help you acquire new skills, or knowing years in advance the precise likelihood of developing specific cancers, or following a diet and health regime tailored to your microbiome, or even having continuous monitoring of your body's workings and well-being. 
 
Written by an award-winning scientist, this landmark book shows how these radical and disconcerting possibilities have been made real. It is at once a gripping drama of scientific ingenuity, discovery and collaboration, and a vision of the human body of dizzying complexity and wonder. 
 
'The startling new discoveries...are radically altering our understanding of how we function and what our future holds' BRIAN COX 
 
'A big-picture forecast of how medicine stands on the threshold of a revolution that will radically change all of our lives' The Times

The Secret Body

How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live

Nat Segnit

Retreat takes us on a stunning journey through the many ways humans step back from daily life, both in today's world and in our past. 
 
'Open-minded, elegantly written and comprehensive' Daily Telegraph 
 
From mindfulness and meditation to yoga breaks and spiritual bootcamps, stepping back from daily life remains a human obsession. In this endlessly enlightening book, Nat Segnit experiences retreats around the world as he investigates why we seek solitude, what we get out of it, and what is going on in our brains and bodies when we achieve it. Along the way, he meets yogic scholars, scientists, religious leaders, philosophers and artists, gaining fascinating - and often startling - insights. 
 
'A vivid personal quest...rich and almost eerily timely' William Fiennes, author of The Snow Geese

Retreat

Adventures in Search of Silence, Solitude and Renewal

The Risks and Rewards of Stepping Back from the World

Alison Bechdel

DISCOVER the BESTSELLING GRAPHIC MEMOIR behind the Olivier Award nominated musical. 
 
'A sapphic graphic treat' The Times 
 
A moving and darkly humorous family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Alison Bechdel's gothic drawings. If you liked Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis you'll love this. 
 
Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high-school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and the family babysitter. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive. 
 
Interweaving between childhood memories, college life and present day, and through narrative that is equally heartbreaking and fiercely funny, Alison looks back on her complex relationship with her father and finds they had more in common than she ever knew. 
 
 
'A groundbreaking masterpiece' The Independent 
 
'A finely woven blend of yearning and euphoric fantasy' Evening Standard 
 
**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

Fun Home

A Family Tragicomic

Amy Thomson

'Informative, powerful' VOGUE 
 
'A fascinating and friendly guide for you to understand you better' MELISSA HEMSLEY 
 
'Amy's book is everything I should have learned at school' EMMA GANNON 
 
Hormones were something Amy Thomson, founder and CEO of leading women's health app and tech service Moody, never paid attention to, until one day her periods stopped. 
 
When she discovered that her hormonal burnout was driven by stress, she quit her job and focused on trying to understand how our hormones can work for twenty-first-century survival. 
 
In this eye-opening guide, Thomson draws upon leading research from nutritionists, gynaecologists, endocrinologists, personal trainers and others to explain how understanding our systems and cycles can help you avoid burnouts, build better and healthier routines and optimise your life.

Moody

The Hidden Power of Hormones

A 21st Century Hormone Guide

Lucy Foulkes

'A must-read... Fascinating' JO BRAND 
 
We need to rethink the conversation around mental health - psychologist Lucy Foulkes explores how and why. 
 
How do mental health problems arise? 
How do we distinguish between the 'normal' challenges of modern life and actual illness? 
Is society really experiencing a new mental health crisis? 
 
In this urgently needed book, psychologist Lucy Foulkes investigates what we know about mental illness - and shines a light on what we don't. It offers a profound new approach to how we think, talk and help when it comes to mental health. 
 
(Previously published in 2021 in hardback under the title Losing Our Minds.) 
 
'Captivating...engaging and lucid' Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 
 
'Clear-headed, compassionate and, ultimately, optimistic' Mark Haddon 
 
'Thorough, wise...much needed' Mark Rice-Oxley

What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t)

Anne Enright

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
 'An unadulterated delight...suffused with a sense of love and very, very funny' Maggie O'Farrell 
 
 It's 2004 and Anne Enright, one of Ireland's most remarkable writers, has just had two babies: a girl and a boy. 
 
 Making Babies, is the intimate, engaging, and very funny record of the journey from early pregnancy to age two. Written in dispatches, typed with a sleeping baby in the room, it has the rush of good news - full of the mess, the glory, and the raw shock of it all. 
 
 An antidote to the high-minded, polemical 'How-to' baby manuals, Making Babies also bears a visceral and dreamlike witness to the first years of parenthood. Anne Enright wrote the truth of it as it happened, because, for these months and years, it is impossible for a woman to lie.

Making Babies

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Anselm Kiefer

Knausgaard Seasons Quartet Series by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Summer is the fourth volume of the Seasons quartet, a collection of short prose and diaries written by a father for his youngest daughter, with stunning artwork by Anselm Kiefer. 
 
'Knausgaard unearths the mysteries of the commonplace' Observer 
 
 In Summer, Karl Ove Knausgaard writes about long days full of sunlight, eating ice cream with his children, lawn sprinklers and ladybirds. He experiments with the beginnings of a novel and keeps a diary in which the small events of his family's life are recorded. Against a canvas of memories, longings, and experiences of art and literature, he searches for the meaning of moments as they pass us by. 
 
'Wondrous... There are blissful glimpses of nature's mystery and balance' Financial Times

Summer

Horatio Clare

'Deeply moving, darkly funny and hugely powerful' Robert Macfarlane 
 
'A brave, lit-up account of going mad and getting better' Jeanette Winterson 
 
After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. From hypomania in the Alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we may heal. 
 
'One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth and humanity' Reverend Richard Coles

Heavy Light

A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing

Lars Lerin

From global literary superstar Karl Ove Knausgaard, an achingly beautiful collection of daily meditations and love letters addressed directly to Knausgaard’s unborn daughter 
 
In Winter, we rejoin the great Karl Ove Knausgaard as the birth of his daughter draws near. In preparation for her arrival, he takes stock of the world, seeing it anew. While new life is on the horizon, the earth is also in hibernation, waiting for the warmer weather to return. In his inimitably sensitive style, he writes about everything from the moon, winter boots and messiness, to owls and birthdays. Taking nothing for granted, he fills these everyday familiar objects and ideas with new meaning. 
 
Startling, compassionate, and exquisitely beautiful, Knausgaard's writing is like nothing else. Somehow, he shows the world as it really is, at once mundane and sublime.

Winter

From the Sunday Times Bestselling Author (Seasons Quartet 2)

Vanessa Baird

The Sunday Times bestseller from literary phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgaard, a love letter about the world written by a father to his unborn daughter. 
 
'Inspiring, surprising... Autumn will warm and enlighten anyone who opens their eyes to it' The Times 
 
Autumn begins with a letter Karl Ove Knausgaard writes to his unborn daughter. He adds one short piece each day, describing the material and natural world - from twilight to the migration of birds, from Van Gogh to forgiveness - with the precision and mesmerising intensity that have become his trademark. 
 
With artwork by Vanessa Baird 
 
'This book is full of wonders... The world feels repainted' New York Times

Autumn

From the Sunday Times Bestselling Author (Seasons Quartet 1)

James Hamblin

Did you know that excessive use of soap and skin-care products is harming our health and the environment? Apart from in hand-washing there is no need to use soap on our bodies at all. 
 
Doctor and preventative medicine expert James Hamblin gave up showering five years ago and only ever uses soap on his hands. In Clean, he takes us on an irreverent and entertaining journey through our complex relationship with our bodies and cleanliness. Drawing on the latest science, he introduces a new way to think about cleanliness - one that is cheaper, simpler and better for our skin, our immunity and the world in which we live. 
 
* With a new afterword by the author * 
 
'Fun, interesting and credible' New York Times 
 
'Persuasive... Clean made me chuckle and then left me thoughtful' Daily Telegraph

Clean

The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less

Sophie Heawood

'Deftly explores expectations of modern womanhood . . . Full of adventure and awe' Dolly Alderton 
 
People always said I'd find love where I least expected it. I always said they were idiots. 
 
I had no idea how to commit to another human being. 
 
I could barely commit to reading a magazine, and I wrote for magazines for a living. My specialist subject was celebrities, and my own relationships made their marriages look eternal. 
 
I'd never paid a household bill that didn't mention bailiffs, and my idea of exercise was to go and stand outside a famous person's house and stare until I'd convinced myself that I lived in it. 
 
 But my life in LA was happy; free of care and consequence. That was, until I came down to earth - with a bump. 
 
 So this is the story of how I staggered from partying in Hollywood to bringing up a baby in Piss Alley, Dalston; how I never did find a copy of What To Expect When You Weren't Even Fucking Expecting To Be Expecting, and why paternity testing is not a good topic for a first-date conversation. 
 
**AN EVENING STANDARD AND COSMOPOLITAN BEST BOOK OF 2020** 
**AN OBSERVER NON-FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020** 
___________________ 
 
Praise for THE HUNGOVER GAMES: 
'Funny, dark and true' Caitlin Moran 
'A deeper, funnier, realer, more poignant Bridget Jones' Philippa Perry 
'Sharply observed and funny' Guardian 
'Frank and fearless' Red 
'Outrageously entertaining' David Nicholls 
'This is the first time I've read anything about motherhood that didn't bore me' Sara Pascoe

The Hungover Games

The gloriously funny Sunday Times bestselling memoir of motherhood

Laura Dockrill

'Such a raw, honest and important book' Giovanna Fletcher 
 
Like any new mum, Laura Dockrill felt rather overwhelmed after the birth of her son. But a slow recovery, sleep deprivation and anxiety quickly escalated into postpartum psychosis, and she had to spend a fortnight in a psych ward, separated from her family. It was only when Laura began to put her ordeal into words that she began to find herself again, and recovery seemed within reach. 
 
This is Laura's raw, honest and life-affirming story of how she made it through one of the most frightening experiences a mother can face. Now, she wants to break down the silence around postnatal mental health, shatter the idealised expectations of perfect motherhood, and show all new struggling parents that they are not alone. 
 
'A book to save a whole generation of women' Adele 
 
A pleasure to read...I didn't want to put it down. If anyone is going through a similar experience it will make them feel less alone' Philippa Perry 
 
'A humbingly honest and human war report from the front lines of mothering psychosis and recovery; there is no other book like it' Caitlin Moran 
 
'An incredibly powerful book' Jessie Ware 
 
'This book will give women and their families confidence that the brain and body will heal' Dr Jessica Heron, CEO of Action on Postpartum Psychosis 
 
'An amazing read' Fiona Telford, postpartum psychosis survivor

What Have I Done?

Motherhood, Mental Illness & Me

Shane O'Mara

'Informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch pototo' New Scientist 
 
 
Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species. 
 
It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking – yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us? In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds, and urges us to appreciate – and exercise – our miraculous ability. 
 
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE WEEK 
 
AGreatRead and ArgosyBooks BOOK OF THE MONTH

In Praise of Walking

The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us

The Hotbed Collective

A FRANK, FUNNY AND EMPOWERING CELEBRATION OF FEMALE PLEASURE 
 
An orgasm will help you sleep and keep you looking younger, it doesn’t cost money and isn’t a scarce resource. So why is it that, like the pay gap, there is an ‘orgasm gap’ between women and men? 
 
The Hotbed Collective began life as a podcast with a mission ‘to make life better one orgasm at a time’. Their debut book, More Orgasms Please is an open, honest and at moments hilarious dive into all aspects of sex for women. It covers feminist porn, body image, menopause and much more. 
 
Like the podcast that inspired it, More Orgasms Please is like the best sort of chat between friends: punchy and playful, normalising and educating. It is an eye-opening read that puts women’s bodies and our right to pleasure firmly on the map. Think of it as ‘Couch to 5k’ ... for orgasms.

More Orgasms Please

Why Female Pleasure Matters

Francesca Segal

'Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and heartfelt - Mother Ship is a beautifully crafted, warts-and-all love letter to our wonderful NHS' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt 
 
 After her identical twin girls are born ten weeks prematurely, Francesca Segal finds herself sitting vigil in the 'mother ship' of neonatal intensive care, all romantic expectations of new parenthood obliterated. 
 
As each day brings a fresh challenge for her and her babies, Francesca makes a temporary life among a band of mothers who are vivid, fearless, and inspiring, taking care not only of their children but of one another. 
 
Mother Ship is a hymn to the sustaining power of women's friendships, and a loving celebration of the two small girls - and their mother - who defy the odds. A comforting and encouraging read, especially for others enduring the same experience. 
 
 'A heart-wrenching insight into what must have been such a fragile, overwhelming and terrifying time - yet there's humour in there too. Beautiful' Giovanna Fletcher 
 
 'A beautiful, lyrical memoir that navigates the unpredictable landscape of NICU and the will to survive' Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness

Mother Ship

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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