Penguin Books

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  • Nuclear War

    £10.99

    The first rule of nuclear war is that there are no rules. Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the Pentagon. Second by second and minute by minute, these are the real-life protocols that choreograph the end of civilisation as we know it. If a single nuclear missile is launched, it provokes two dozen in return. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled outside. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction. Because the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the United States government, this book takes the reader up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known.

  • Odyssey

    £10.99

    Follow Odysseus after he leaves the fallen city of Troy and takes ten long dramatic years – battling monsters, the temptations of goddesses and suffering the curse of Poseidon – to voyage home to his wife Penelope on the island of Ithaca.

  • Every Body Should Know This

    £10.99

    In theory, we all know what works and doesn’t work for our bodies; we know that we should eat more vegetables, consume less refined sugar and saturated fat, avoid ultra-processed foods. We know that what we choose to eat has a direct consequence on our health and our happiness. But we have lost touch with our food; it’s produced far away from our day to day lives and often arrives prepared and pre-packed to our homes, our desks and our supermarkets. We have built a food environment that is based on food marketing and arbitrary targets, instead of responding to our biology and nourishing ourselves as individuals. Dr Amati explains how to make the most beneficial decisions for maintaining good health at every stage of life. This book combines nutrition, medical science and public health advice to create a simple guide to what we should all know about our food and how it affects us.

  • The Safekeep

    £10.99

    It’s 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel’s life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep – as a guest, there to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn’t. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house – a spoon, a knife, a bowl – Isabel’s suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to desire – leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known.

  • I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You

    £10.99

    Hello to you, I am with news. Basically, I have had an unexpectedly difficult decade – there have been surprising joys but also deep revelations and challenging lows. I shall be honest about those, because what I discovered in the difficult times were my, what I call, treasures. Treasures – practical tools, values, ways, answers researched from some great scientists, neuroscientists, therapists, sociologists (all the ‘ists’) out there – that have genuinely led to a sense of freedom, joy, peace and physical recovery I never would have thought possible.

  • The Racket

    £10.99

    When Conor Niland was 16, he got the chance to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri’s famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy.Conor Niland knows what it’s like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room (‘Ciao, bonjour, hello!’), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world’s biggest tennis stadium – while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top. ‘The Racket’ is the story of pro tennis’s 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments.

  • Autocracy, Inc

    £12.99

    Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources – the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another – and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc.

  • Karla’s Choice

    £9.99

    It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy. But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy.

  • One Golden Summer

    £10.99

    Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother always says. And it’s true. It’s where Alice took that photo, the one that catapulted her career. Alice has always been happiest behind the safety of her lens. But when her grandmother takes a fall, Alice brings takes a break from her photography career to take them back to Barry’s Bay. Though their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat. Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice unknowingly took his photo and now he’s all grown up. Sun-kissed days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing blue gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart. Because Alice sees people – that’s why she is so good at what she does – but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

  • We solve murders

    £9.99

    Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?

  • A history of Britain in ten enemies

    £10.99

    Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on Earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn’t we? Well, as it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. But then, as ‘Horrible Histories’ author Terry Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make. The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren’t for the Ninth Legion, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, and Churchill an opposition windbag without the Nazis. Britain loves its heroes so much we have been known to pickle them in brandy to keep them fresh. This book is an entertaining gallop through history that will have you laughing as you find out what they didn’t teach you in school.

  • Precipice

    £9.99

    Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

  • Sandwich

    £9.99

    For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to the beach. The humble, quirky house they rent has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, shared mishaps and memories. It is a place where her family comes together and Rocky wants to cling to every moment. But with her body in open revolt and surprises invading her peaceful haven, the seesaw of Rocky’s life is tipping towards change.

  • Invasion

    £9.99

    2024, and China is massing troops on its coast across the Strait from Taiwan. This time it looks like they’re serious about invasion – an act that would result in war between the People’s Republic and the US and its allies, including the UK. But Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has an agent in play: someone close to the top of the Chinese Communist Party and who’s ready to pass on vital secrets that could defuse the escalating situation. But as the handover takes place in a Hong Kong back street cafe, the agent’s MI6 handler is snatched before she can transmit the data back to London and disappears. There are few clues as to who might be responsible. Is it China’s infamous state security agency, the MSS? Or has another, less predictable player entered the game? MI6 field operative Luke Carlton is despatched to track down the missing agent.

  • Table for two

    £10.99

    Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, ‘Table for Two’ is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

  • The Penguin Lessons

    £10.99

    Tom Michell is in his roaring 20s: single, free-spirited and seeking adventure. He has a plane ticket to South America, a teaching position in a prestigious Argentinian boarding school and endless summer holidays. He even has a motorbike! What he doesn’t need is a pet. What he really doesn’t need is a pet penguin. Set against Argentina’s turbulent years, following the collapse of the corrupt Perónist regime, this is the heart-warming story of Juan Salvador the penguin, rescued by Tom from an oil slick in Uruguay just days before a new term. When the bird refuses to leave Tom’s side, he has no choice but to smuggle it through customs, across the border and back to school, where it soon transforms the lives of all they meet.