Swift Press

  • I can’t stop thinking about VAR

    £14.99

    In 2019, the English Premier League introduced the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), a way of using technology to review and correct the on-field referee’s decisions. It has been an unmitigated disaster: players hate it, managers hate it, pundits line up to pour scorn on its decisions and fans have coined the chant ‘it’s not football any more’ to describe its effect on the game. Almost every other sport in the world has managed to integrate technology into its decision-making process. So why is football failing so badly? Daisy Christodoulou examines the multiple issues of the great VAR fiasco.

  • Kaput

    £20.00

    Until recently, Germany appeared to be a paragon of economic and political success. Angela Merkel was widely seen as the true ‘leader of the free world’, and Germany’s export-driven economic model seemed to deliver prosperity. But recent events – from Germany’s dependence on Russian gas to its car industry’s delays in the race to electric – have undermined this view. In ‘Kaput’, Wolfgang Münchau argues that the weaknesses of Germany’s economy have, in fact, been brewing for decades.

  • The house next to the factory

    £9.99

    Life in the house is humdrum and confining, but on a rare evening out, Kavya sets off in search of a nun; a beloved teacher is caught in the aftermath of the anti-Sikh riots; a loyal servant worries over his relationship with a low caste woman; while in England, an aunt reads William Trevor and pines for all that she has left behind. Over the years, the family’s steel utensil business blossoms, and amid the clanging of metal and the churning of machines, the household transitions from bourgeois to elite. Yet at thirty, Kavya finds herself in Paris, hoping to get past the sorrows of her young life.

  • A beginner’s guide to dying

    £14.99

    In his mid-40s, Simon Boas was diagnosed with incurable cancer – it had been caught too late, and spread around his body. But he was determined to die as he had learned to live – optimistically, thinking the best of people, and prioritising what really matters in life. In ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Dying’ Simon considers and collates the things that have given him such a great sense of peace and contentment, and why dying at 46 really isn’t so bad.

  • Moscow X

    £9.99

    CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max’s family business in Mexico – a CIA front since the 1960s – is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. Careening between the horse ranch and the dark opulence of Saint Petersburg, ‘Moscow X’ is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a daring work of political commentary on the conflict between Washington and Moscow.

  • Behind you is the sea

    £14.99

    This is a compelling debut that fearlessly challenges stereotypes surrounding Palestinian culture. With humour and poignancy, this book delves into the intimate lives of three primary Palestinian immigrant families in America – the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars – whose destinies and struggles electrify the community dynamics, occasionally sparking tension and turmoil. Through shifting perspectives, it intricately weaves a rich social tapestry filled with weddings, funerals, shattered hearts, and closely-guarded secrets. This captivating narrative amplifies the voices of a diverse Palestinian community, capturing the struggles of young activists pushing against tradition and the marginalised labouring for survival.

  • Tiananmen Square

    £20.00

    It is Beijing in the 1970s, and Lai lives with her parents, grandmother and younger brother in a small flat in a working-class area. As she grows up, Lai comes to discern the realities of the country she lives is: an early encounter with the police haunts her for years; her father makes her see that his quietness is a reaction to experiences he has lived through; and an old bookseller subtly introduces her to ideas that open her mind to different perspectives. A novel about coming to see the world as it is, ‘Tiananmen Square’ is the story of one girl’s life growing up in the China of the 1970s and 80s, as well as the story of the events in 1989 that give the novel its name.

  • Moscow X

    £18.99

    CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max’s family business in Mexico – a CIA front since the 1960s – is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. Careening between the horse ranch and the dark opulence of Saint Petersburg, ‘Moscow X’ is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a daring work of political commentary on the conflict between Washington and Moscow.

  • Run to the western shore

    £12.99

    Britain, AD 75. Quintus, long exiled from his people, has travelled great odysseys in the retinue of a powerful Roman. Though a citizen of nowhere, is a man of reason, fluent in many languages. Olwen, imperious tribal royalty, is rooted in her native land – a volatile warrior, fiercely attached to the natural world. Given away by her father as part of a peace treaty, Olwen flees during the night, taking Quintus with her. Hunted by an army, the two make their way across the country, living off the land, heading for the western shore.

  • Auld acquaintance

    £8.99

    Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Millie Partridge desperately needs a party. So, when her (handsome and charming) ex-colleague Nick invites her to a Hebridean Island for New Year’s Eve, she books her ticket North. But things go wrong the moment the ferry drops her off. The stately home is more down at heel than Downton Abbey. Nick hasn’t arrived yet. And the other revellers? Politely, they aren’t exactly who she would have pictured Nick would be friends with. Worse still, an old acquaintance from Millie’s past has been invited, too. Penny Maybury. Millie and Nick’s old colleague. Somebody Millie would rather have forgotten about. Somebody, in fact, that Millie has been trying very hard to forget. Waking up on New Year’s Eve, Penny is missing. A tragic accident? Or something more sinister?

  • The shards

    £10.99

    LA, 1981. Buckley College in heat. 17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic, and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends, even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equalled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with The Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. Can he trust his friends – or his own mind – to make sense of the danger they appear to be in?

  • River of the gods

    £12.99

    In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke 29 languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs. ‘River of the Gods’ is a story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers.