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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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Timothy Snyder

The #1 New York Times bestseller, now in an expanded audiobook edition that includes detailed historical context for the democracy-threatening Ukrainian conflict and a call to action for modern times. 
 
 This edition includes the bestselling original On Tyranny, read by the author. 
 
 In this exclusive audiobook edition, which includes eight hours of new content, Timothy Snyder combines the original On Tyranny (2017) - twenty lessons on how history can instruct our response to the rise of tyranny around the world today - with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about Russia's war on Ukraine. With forays into history, he clarifies the causes of the Russian invasion and the meaning of Ukrainian resistance, and explains the war's connections to threats to democracy around the world. Linking past and present, and speaking only from notes, Snyder delivers an important call to arms and roadmap for resistance, providing invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come. This is the long view we all need, given to us right now by a leading expert. 
 
 "Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings" Masha Gessen, about On Tyranny

On Tyranny and On Ukraine

Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine

Amanda Gorman

'For there is always light 
If only we're brave enough to be it. 
If only we're brave enough to see it.' 
 
**Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller** 
 
'I was profoundly moved... The power of your words blew me away' Michelle Obama, TIME 
 
'A moment of history in book form' Stylist 
 
'Deeply rousing and uplifting' Vogue 
 
On 20 January 2021, Amanda Gorman spoke a message of truth and hope to millions. 
 
Aged twenty-two, she delivered a poetry reading at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden. Her poem, 'The Hill We Climb', addressed the country and reached across the world: a call for a brave future. 
 
This special edition, which includes an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, marks that poem and offers us courage, consolation and the inspiration to make change. 
 
'I was thrilled' Hillary Clinton 
 
'She spoke truth to power and embodied clear-eyed hope to a weary nation. She revealed us to ourselves' Lin-Manuel Miranda, TIME

The Hill We Climb

An Inaugural Poem

George Orwell

With an introduction by Kamila Shamsie 
 
‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.’ 
 
GEORGE ORWELL is one of the world’s most famous writers and social commentators. Through his writing he exposed the unjust sufferings of the poor and unemployed, warned against totalitarianism and defended freedom of speech. 
 
This selection, from both his novels and non-fiction, charts his prescient and clear-eyed thinking on the subject of FREEDOM. It ranges from pieces on individual liberty, society and technology, to political liberty, revolution and the importance of free speech. Orwell's ambition to create a fairer and more egalitarian society is essential inspiration as we strive for freedom and equality in today's world. 
 
'If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.'

Orwell on Freedom

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

Nick Clegg

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* 
Keep calm – but do not carry on. There is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit – except that it will be deeply damaging if it happens. Extricating Britain from Europe will be the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War. And as negotiations with the EU expose the promises of the Brexit campaign to have been hollow, even some Brexit-voters now wish to exercise their democratic right to change their mind, seeing that the most pragmatic option is to … stop. It would certainly be the best thing for Britain. But how can it be done? Haven’t the people spoken? 
 
No. In this indispensable handbook, Nick Clegg categorically debunks the various myths that have been used to force Brexit on Britain, not by ‘the people’ but by a small, extremely rich, self-serving elite, and explains precisely how this historic mistake can be reversed – and what you can do to make sure that it is.

How To Stop Brexit (And Make Britain Great Again)

Sarvepalli Gopal

Among the few great statesmen to emerge in Asia, Jawaharal Nehru achieved a national metamorphosis in some ways even more astonishing than that of another towering patriarch, Mao Tse-tung. Not only did he wrest from the British their most prized and dearly loved Imperial possession and give his people independence, he brought his culturally rich yet economically improvised nation into the twentieth century as a force to be reasoned with. The first volume of Sarvepalli Gopal’s remarkable biographic, covering Nehru’s youth and ending with Independence in 1947, is written from first-hand knowledge of the man who served for ten years in the Ministry for External Affairs and from the unlimited access granted him by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to her father’s private papers.

Jawaharlal Nehru;a Biography Volume 1 1889-1947

The third and final volume of Sarvepalli Gopal’s biography of Jawaharlal Nehru covers the last eight years of his life and Prime Ministership. It deals with his efforts to sustain economic and social advance of the Indian people and not to lose hold of the principles of his foreign policy even while relations with China deteriorated, culminating the large scale aggression in both the western and eastern sections of the long boundary between the two countries.

Jawaharlal Nehru

A Biography Volume 3 1956-1964

Laurens Van Der Post

From the beginning, Lauren Van Der Post has been aware of a dimension in life far longer and more significant than the outer eventfulness of everyday living. His perception of life's mysterious power began with the Bushman, the first people of his native Africa, and grew in the universal imagery of dreams, the fertile legends and stories of ancient civilization, the intuitive teaching of prophets, poets and other pioneers of human awareness. In this book he has brought together two of his most deeply felt and far reaching essays, and has extended their message with great imaginative insight, exploring the potential in all men and women to acquire self-knowledge and to live life according to its fundamental precepts.

The Voice of the Thunder

Ruth Dudley Edwards

On Saturday 15th August, 1998, a massive bomb placed by the so-called Real IRA ripped through the town of Omagh, killing twenty-nine people, including eleven children, and injuring over two hundred. It was the worst massacre in Northern Ireland's modern history- yet from it came a most extraordinary tale of human resilience, as the families of ten of the dead channelled their grief into action. 
 
Taking for their motto, 'For evil to triumph, all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing', they decided to pursue the men whom the police believed responsible for the atrocity through the civil courts, where the burden of proof is lower. This is the remarkable account of how these families- who had no knowledge of the law and no money- became internationally recognised, formiddable campaigners and surmounted countless daunting obstacles to win a famous victory. 
 
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize 2010

Aftermath

The Omagh Bombing and the Families' Pursuit of Justice

Richard Murphy

Tax has rocketed to the top of the news agenda. When Amazon, Google and Starbucks were pulled up in front of the Public Accounts Committee, many were stunned at how little corporation tax they paid (if at all) in a time of austerity and government cuts. How can a tax gap of £12 billion be justified, when a CEO can take home $101 million a year? There is a growing realization that maybe we aren't ‘all in this together’, and what are Google's 'Dutch sandwich' and a 'double Irish' anyway? 
 
 In this 30,000-word ebook Richard Murphy, a highly respected economic commentator and blogger, explains how we came to this situation, its origins and development after the 2008 economic crisis, who the villains of the piece are, and why. But this ebook also seeks answers and Murphy offers concrete and practical solutions in the face of growing public awareness, which politicians and companies will ignore at their peril as taxpayers vote with their feet. 
 
 Part of the Brain Shots series, the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form non-fiction.

Over Here and Undertaxed: Multinationals, Tax Avoidance and You

Will Hutton

The National Health Service is Britain's greatest and most prized national institution. Ever since it's foundation the NHS has commanded extraordinary popular affection and loyalty. Its medical and non-medical staff force alike has been strongly committed to its success and values. However, now more than fifty years later, a huge gap has developed between what the NHS is able to deliver and the expectations and the needs of its users. The deterioration of the NHS dominates our news headlines today. 
In 1999 the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales established a Commission, chaired by Will Hutton, to examine the issue of the public interest and accountability of the NHS. The Commission's report has come up with some radical reforms that will transform the accountability of the NHS and will help rebuild the relationships between patients, doctors and NHS staff on a new basis of openness and trust.

New Life For Health

The Commission on the NHS chaired by Will Hutton

Laurie Penny

Molly Crabapple

DISCORDIA is a story of courage and collapse in a country and a culture struggling to map out its future. A short ebook combining a 24,000-word essay with 36 detailed drawings, DISCORDIA is a feminist-art-gonzo-journalism project conceived at Occupy Wall Street and created in the summer of debt and doubt after the euphoric street protests of 2011-2012. 
 
In July 2012, artist Molly Crabapple and journalist Laurie Penny travelled to Greece. There, they drew and interviewed anarchists, autonomists, striking workers and ordinary people caught up in the Euro crisis. DISCORDIA is the result. In an impassioned climate where ‘objective’ journalism is impossible, Penny and Crabapple offer a snapshot of a nation in the grip of a very modern crisis where young and old see little reason to go on, the left is scattered and the far right is assuming greater power and influence. Along the way they drink far too much coffee, become hypnotised by street art, and somehow manage not to get arrested or mugged. 
 
DISCORDIA is an experiment in form, using the illustrated ebook format to its fullest extent to tell a story unique to the wordlength and digital platform involved. Crabapple's intricate, Victorian-inspired ink drawings lend a timeless quality to what is a conscious foray into a new kind of journalism - inspired by the New Journalism of the 1970s, in particular the art-journalism collaborations of Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman, but reworking that tradition for a 21st century world where young women must still fight at every turn to be taken seriously. 
 
DISCORDIA weaves together the personal and political, picking out those elements of the Greek crisis that are recognisable across the West to a generation struggling to articulate its purpose in a world of spiralling unemployment, democratic collapse and civil unrest. The solutions to the failure of modern neoliberal statecraft are very different to the 'tune in, turn on, drop out' ethos of the sixties: these days the drugs are worse and rock 'n' roll can't save us. The future is a question in search of an answer. 
 
Available only digitally, with a foreword by economic journalist and writer Paul Mason, this beautifully illustrated ebook is part-polemic, part-travelogue and part-paean to the birthplace of civilization brought to its knees. Part of the Brain Shot series, the pre-eminent source of short form digital non-fiction. 
 
'This is the Next Big Thing in journalism: digital, visual, intelligent, heartfelt, post-political, female, alarming, and engaging. It's both an honest chronicle of one corner of the collapse of a civilization, and an inspiring demonstration of the kinds of thinking, craft, and collaboration that might yet get us through.' Douglas Rushkoff, author of LIFE INC.

Discordia

Six Nights in Crisis Athens

Emily O'Reilly

At 1pm on 26 June 1996 the Sunday Independent's crime reporter Veronica Guerin was shot dead by a motorcycle pillion passenger as she waited at traffic lights on the outskirts of Dublin - the victim of her own crusading expos-s of leading criminals. Her death profoundly shocked the country.  Both the President and the Taoiseach attended her funeral; tributes were paid to her in parliament, and hundreds of bouquets of flowers were placed in her memory by members of the public.  Within a month new anti-crime measures had been introduced and two of the leading murder suspects had fled the country. While Guerin was hailed as a heroine, the finest journalist of her generation, the Sunday Independent was busy denying any culpability in her death, and its officials vigorously refuted accusations that the paper's cult of personality and cynical controversialism put its writers in danger.  Emily O'Reilly's book exposes the frightening moral bankruptcy of the media and the devastating consequences of this - for the individual and for society.

Veronica Guerin

Christopher Hitchens

As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bring renewed focus to the monarchy, now is the perfect time to re-examine Christopher Hitchens’s powerful polemic. 
 
In this scathing essay, Christopher Hitchens looks at the relationship of the press and the public to the royal family, unpacking the tautology and contradictory arguments that prop it up. In his inimitable style, Hitchens argues that our desire not to profane or disturb the monarchy is a failure of reason and a confusion of reality. Fealty to the magic of monarchy stops us looking objectively at our own history and hinders open-minded criticism of our present. It is time we outgrew it. 
 
 With the recent birth of royal baby Archie, during a time of austerity and national inequality, Hitchens’s 10,000-word critique is even more relevant today than when it was first published in 1990. 
 
 'Christopher is one of the most terrifying rhetoricians that the world has yet seen' Martin Amis

The Monarchy

A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish

Anthony Barnett

This is the most important, wide-ranging and critical debate so far published on the monarchy. 
 
It is not concerned with the trivia and tragedy of the Windsor's personal lives. Instead, a glittering range of contributors from across the spectrum of opinion focus on what the monarchy means for Britain today. Do we - can we? - continue to live in what Anthony Barnett calls in a provocative introductory essay, "an empire state?" 
 
The essays include Charles Moore's stirring reassertion of the case for the crown and David Hare's denunciation of the "odious rituals of deference." Lady Longford assures us that the royal phoenix will rise from the ashes of the Windsor fire. Christopher Hitchens rebukes Shirely Williams and criticizes the monarchy for invading our privacy. Marina Warner dissects our fear of change. These and many others contribute to a debate conceived as a watershed. A debate that will be seen as having shattered the taboo on serious scrutiny of the monarchy.

Power And The Throne

Afsaneh Moqadam

For much of the world, Iran's 2009 summer of upheaval was an epic piece of theatre distantly observed. As citizens took to the streets in their millions to protest a stolen election and the regime that made it possible, and later, in smaller numbers, did battle with the shock troops of the Islamic Republic, so the country became effectively off limits for the world's media. This dramatic confrontation - and the deep divisions that opened among Iran's rulers as a result - have yet to be convincingly described for a Western audience. 
 
Afsaneh Moqadam observed and took part in the momentous events of that summer. Here, through the eyes of Mohsen, one of Tehran's young, courageous protesters, Moqadam tells the story of these historic months, from the mass marches that greeted the disputed election results to their brutal suppression by the hated Basij militia - and a dark aftermath of imprisonment, torture and a show trial worthy of Stalinist Russia. 
 
The result is an inspiring account of a confrontation that has signalled the fragility of the Islamic Republic and given pause to those Western leaders, notably President Barack Obama, who must grapple diplomatically with what may become the world's next nuclear power. Above all, Death to the Dictator! is testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and its ability to strike fear in the hearts of despots.

Death to the Dictator!

Witnessing Iran's election and the Crippling of the Islamic Republic

Terry Parssinen

In September 1938, Hitler had been in power for more than five years, and had abrogated most of the constraints placed on German militarism by the Treaty of Versailles. Earlier that year he had forced Austria into his Third Reich without a single shot fired, and his sights were set on Czechoslovakia. It was in this climate that a coup was born, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster of German military leaders, members of the Berlin police, local troop commanders, civil authorities, religious leaders, and a courageous group of resisters who assembled in a mission to unseat, and even kill, Hitler. 
 
The Oster Conspiracy of 1938 mines the cultural and political milieu of post-WWI Europe, the forces and personal histories that motivated the group to such decisive and dangerous action, and the catalyst of their ultimate failure. This is narrative history at its best: revelatory, well documented with archival material, people with a rich cast of characters, fast-paced, and highly provocative.

The Oster Conspiracy of 1938

The Unknown Story of the Military Plot to Kill Hitler

Anthony Giddens

Capitalism has become the universal social and economic order of our time. The capitalism of today, however, differs from that of previous eras; with intensifying globalisation, flexible organisations, and new forms of class divisions. Globalisation brings new possibilities, but also new risks, ranging from degradation of the environment to the concentrated control of the media. On the Edge comprises original essays by, among others, Polly Toynbee, Richard Senett and George Soros. They chart the contours of contemporary capitalism, analyse the role of the business firm, and consider whether the new capitalism is compatible with social cohesion and social justice. They discuss capitalism both as a form of culture and as an influence on daily life, and ask if capitalism has any viable rivals at the turn of the millennium.

On The Edge

Linda McDougall

L McDougall

Members, wives, lovers. Secretaries, peers, researchers. Journalists, cleaners and canteen staff. There have always been more women than men at Westminster. Women have dominated in most categories - except the MPs themselves, who have of course been overwhelmingly male. but, now there are now more women in parliament than ever before with the election of Labour government. WESTMINSTER WOMEN will, through the stories of the women themselves, chart the changes taking place in the first session of the new parliament. McDougall will focus on the lives, working as well as personal, of a group of women who will also be the stars of a TV programme.

Westminster Women

Jack Fairweather

A gripping account of the moral and political challenges posed by the Iraq war from the Costa Award winning author of The Volunteer. 
 
When Tony Blair plunged Britain into war he thought that, shortly thereafter, Iraq would emerge as a peaceful democracy. Instead the invasion sparked the worst foreign policy disaster since the Suez crisis in 1956. 
 
 A War of Choice is a compelling and authoritative portrayal of Britain's war in Iraq. At the outset, Blair insisted that Britain went to war to influence American decision-making. Based on over three hundred interviews, A War of Choice gives the inside story of Blair's war cabinet, Whitehall power struggles and intrigue at the White House, and traces the evolution of the special relationship, from the secret deals struck by Blair, to Brown's desperate bid to save his premiership, which brought already-strained relations with America to the verge of collapse. 
 
 A story of hubris and honour, betrayal and the ultimate sacrifice, A War of Choice provides powerful insight into one of Britain’s most controversial conflicts. 
 
‘A timely work that offers a considered appraisal of what went wrong’ Times Literary Supplement

A War of Choice

The British in Iraq 2003-9

Nariman Youssef

On 25th January this year 50,000 people descended on Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest against president Hosni Mubarak. What followed was an extraordinary 18 days when the square became the focal point for the hopes and fears of Egypt's people, in a situation often joyous but also intense, as the military moved in and Mubarak supporters began to infiltrate the area. 
 
Nariman Youssef was in Tahrir Square during this extraordinary gathering. This ebook for the Summer of Unrest series is a gripping diary of that time until Mubarak stepped down on 11th February, which saw the crowds in the square swell to 1 million at one point. 
 
As well as an extraordinary insight from within the most important uprising in the Arab Spring, Youssef pulls back to document the signposts to, and issues that fueled, the surge for democratic change in Egypt, exploding myths and uncovering hidden truths as she goes. 
 
BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest: Tahrir - 18 Days of Grace

Geoff Mulgan

CONNEXITY is the philosophical counterpart to Will Hutton's essentially political book. It looks at the profound tension that exists between two recent achievements of humanity: greater freedom (over how to live, who to love, what to believe and say, where to trade), and greater interdependence, or 'connexity' (through the financial markets, military structures, the internet, the ecosystem). This tension has led to crisis: institutions, including governments, sense themselves to be inadequate; individuals are faced with a mass of conflicting information and values. The issue we face, which will ultimately determine human survival in our densely packed planet, is how the tension between these two can be resolved, and a new order established. Mulgan presents his own powerful solution to this crisis. It is based around the notion of 'connexity': breaking down our rigid sense of ourselves as isolated units and seeing our lives as part of a system, a positive network of co-responsibility.

Connexity

How to Live in a Connected World

Graham Harvey

Over then past fifty years the British countryside has changed out of all recognition. A wide range of wildlife species are disappearing - victims of modern intensive farming, of pesticides and fertilisers and the sheer relentless pressure to maximise output from every hedge bank and field corner. It need not have happened. The loss of our wildlife and countryside has come about through a deliberate and sustained national policy, one that costs the British people 8 billion a year. 
 
The Killing of the Countryside is a devastating attack on modern British agricultural policy and practice and a plea for a return to natural cycles, an end to subsidies and the domination of agribusiness, and for a safe, sustainable farming system. 
 
Winner of the 1997 BP Natural World Book Award.

The Killing Of The Countryside

Piers Brendon

This astute biography brilliantly captures, in one volume, the full range of Winston Churchill's astonishing career. perhaps the greatest political figure of modern times, Churchill's achievement extended well beyond his emblematic role in the Second World War. Piers Brendon brings great wit and dozens of pungent anecdotes to this penetrating account, illuminating the 'monstrous compound' of courage and egotism, rudeness and humour, brutality and compassion that was Winston Churchill. What emerges from these pages is one of the most fascinating and colourful figures of the twentieth century. To rescue Churchill from being buried under millions of words Piers Brendon has written a brief but brilliant profile of the colossus.

Churchill

Hal Vaughan

Coco Chanel, high priestess of couture, created the look of the chic modern woman: her simple and elegant designs freed women from their corsets and inspired them to crop their hair. By the 1920s, Chanel employed more than two thousand people in her workrooms, and had amassed a personal fortune. But at the start of the Second World War, Chanel closed down her couture house and went to live quietly at the Ritz, moving to Switzerland after the war. For more than half a century, Chanel's life from 1941 to 1954 has been shrouded in rumour. Neither Chanel nor her biographers have told the full story, until now. 
 
In this explosive narrative Hal Vaughan pieces together Chanel's hidden years, from the Nazi occupation of Paris to the aftermath of the Liberation. He uncovers the truth of Chanel's anti-Semitism and long-whispered collaboration with Hitler's officials. In particular, Chanel's long relationship with 'Spatz', Baron von Dincklage, previously described as a tennis-playing playboy and German diplomat, and finally exposed here as a Nazi master spy and agent who ran an intelligence ring in the Mediterranean and reported directly to Joseph Goebbels. 
 
Sleeping with the Enemy tells in detail how Chanel became a German intelligence operative, Abwehr agent F-7124; how she was enlisted in spy missions, and why she evaded arrest in France after the war. It reveals the role played by Winston Churchill in her escape from retribution; and how, after a nine-year exile in Switzerland with Dincklage, and despite French investigations into her espionage activities, Coco was able to return to Paris and triumphantly reinvent herself - and rebuild the House of Chanel. 
 
As Hal Vaughan shows, far from being a heroine of France, Chanel was in fact one of its most surprising traitors.

Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent

Tom Chatfield

The student protests during the closing months of 2010 were organised online via Facebook, Twitter, university forums, Google Maps and other networks. They came in the wake of a surge of activity on the web that confonted the traditional media channels when Wikileaks and Anonymous disrupted them, creating a New World Order of breaking news. 
 
The fluid organisation of the protests showed that the internet and social media were key tools for organising dissent. Then in the Spring 2011, a wave of uprisings broke over North Africa with Tunisia, Egypt and Libya swept up in revolts also galvanised online. 
 
Tom Chatfield explores how the internet is re-shaping society and affecting identity in a period of acute political turbulence. 
 
BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest: Activism or Slacktivism?

The Future of Digital Politics

Dan Hancox

"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg 
 
In this considered and polemical piece, Dan Hancox examines a world in which our fates are no longer governed by elected representatives with shirts and ties, but abstract finance. Where the problem is not so much false consciousness as blurred consciousness. He examines the 'spectacle of capitalism' that has stymied political activism for so long and how the closing months of 2010 saw a surge in rage that continues as the youth of Britain is waking up from its malaise in the face of provocation and the cuts programme. 
 
Beginning in the stifling kettle on Westminster Bridge, Hancox weaves on-the-ground reportage with political theory to describe and explain the growth of movements like UK Uncut, the University for Strategic Optimism and other actions to create a better society. An anthem for kettled youth, this ebook is a stake in the ground signalling the rebirth of the curiosity of a generation breaking free of its shackles. 
 
BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest: Kettled Youth

The Battle Against the Neoliberal Endgame

Peter Beaumont

Peter Beaumont has been on the ground in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya as the 'Arab Spring' has blossomed. He has witnessed the uprisings in all their messy reality. In this ebook he explains what is going on in the region and explodes the myths that the uprisings can be interpreted as an easily explainable revolution. 
 
He draws linkages between the countries ruled over by authoritarian regimes that promise 'reform' which is actually impossible to deliver, the frustration and anger this has caused, and then how this fulminated and eventually exploded, triggering a domino effect across the region. 
 
BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest: Revolution Road

Reflections on the Arab Spring

Mehdi Hasan

Britain in 2011 is in the grip of debt hysteria. If the current coalition government is going to be remembered for one thing it is the cuts: the most severe that this country has seen for decades. Cuts to university funding, libraries and public sector workplaces have seen the most high profile resistance, with the type of protest on the streets not seen since the Poll Tax riots and the Thatcher years. 
 
In this ebook, Mehdi Hasan exposes ten myths about the debt, deficits and spending cuts, and asks if this programme of austerity is really necessary or whether it is actually an economic strategy with its roots in an ideology that extends much further back in time than the global economic collapse of 2008. 
 
BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest: The Debt Delusion

Exposing ten Tory myths about debts, deficits and spending cuts

Clive Ponting

How has the world changed in the last century? As we look back across a hundred years of turbulence, Clive Ponting provides a major reassessment of what the twentieth century has meant to people throughout the world. Progress and Barbarism analyses the fundamental forces of population, industry and their consequences for the environment. It traces the rise and fall of empires, the impact of nationalism, examines domestic politics from all political perspectives, and considers the darker side of history in the growing repressive power of states across the world and the most terrible of twentieth-century crimes - genocide. Progress and Barbarism is a provocative and challenging interpretation of twentieth-century history, combining a global sweep and an eye for detail and individual experiences.

Progress and Barbarism

The World in the Twentieth Century

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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